Mnquma Municipal Manager poses with the certificate and medal awarded to him by Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane in recognition of achieving a Clean Audit for the 2020/21 financial year

Posted: 28 March 2023

Mnquma is the FIRST local municipality to achieve a CLEAN AUDIT, out of the five local municipalities under the Amathole District.

As of December 31st, 2022, Mnquma Local Municipality was the least indebted local municipality, with a bill of up to R7m.

This announcement, made by the office of the Provincial Treasury, was met with a huge applause from Councillors and officials during day-two of the municipality's Strategic Planning session in February this year. Treasury also noted that the municipality is fully compliant with the mandatory 30-day period within which to pay service providers.
Executive Mayor Cllr Tunyiswa Manxila-Nkamisa said she was very proud of the clean audit achievement, adding that it had earned the Mnquma Council a lot of respect among other municipalities around the country. "It is testimony of the table political and administrative leadership that you have witnessed in our municipality and puts us at an advantage to do more to improve the lives of the people of Mnquma," she said.

The Auditor-General's clean audit opinion was achieved during the first term of the appointment of Municipal Manager Mr Silumko Mahlasela, who was appointed as the Accounting Officer in 2018. From an unqualified opinion (disclaimer), Mr Mahlasela said he was glad that together with the management team they had managed to achieve one of their major targets.
"A clean audit is testimony of good governance and functional systems within a local government sphere. It lays a fertile ground to attract investment into the municipality because it boosts investor confidence. When coming into office we introduced several belt-tightening measures to stabilise the environment within the municipality. These included a skills and qualifications audit, risk-mitigating measures and a complete overhaul of our revenue generating systems. The focus now shifts towards maintaining that clean audit so that we accelerate our service delivery mandate," said Mr Mahlasela.

The provincial treasury also revealed residents and business in Mnquma owe the municipality a staggering R160m in unpaid rates and services, with the lion's share (R104m) of this going towards residential debt. Mnquma's 63-member Council and the administration both agreed to enhance its revenue collection campaign to recoup the debt which will be used to accelerate the rollout of basic service delivery for the benefit of Mnquma residents. The municipality is currently offering a 50% discount for a full settlement of debt owed. The South African Local Government Association (Salga) and the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) also made presentations on the support offered to create functioning and efficient local government institutions.

By: LOYISO MPALANTSHANE
Pictures by: LOYISO MPALANTSHANE