Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Riëtte Dell and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Tim Mpakathe.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Setsoto calls on municipal leadership to urgently implement a decisive audit action plan and enforce consequence management following the latest audit outcome issued by the Auditor-General of South Africa, which awarded Setsoto Local Municipality an unqualified audit opinion with findings.
While this outcome confirms that the municipality’s financial statements are now credible and fairly presented, it is important to be clear: this is not a clean audit. The continued presence of audit findings confirms that governance weaknesses and accountability failures remain.
At the recent Council meeting, the DA caucus extended professional recognition to the Executive Mayor, Cllr. Seipati Mbiwe and the Municipal Manager, Ms Nomvula Malatjie, for the improvement achieved. However, this progress must now be matched with decisive administrative action.
The Auditor-General has again raised consequence management as an area of concern, and the DA caucus calls on the Municipal Manager, Ms Malatjie, to urgently ensure that officials responsible for financial misconduct, non-compliance, or control failures are held accountable. Without consequence management, audit improvements cannot be sustained, and risk reversal cannot be achieved.
The DA further notes with concern that the continued absence of a functioning Financial Misconduct Board undermines the municipality’s ability to address financial misconduct, as required under the Municipal Finance Management Act. This institutional failure delays accountability and hampers the municipality’s ability to achieve a clean audit.
The Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC), which includes DA representation, continues to perform its oversight function and ensure that audit findings are interrogated and corrective measures monitored. As part of the opposition in Council, the DA caucus remains committed to exercising rigorous oversight to ensure that audit findings are not merely noted, but acted upon.
Effective oversight is essential to ensuring that governance improvements translate into real institutional reform.
While the improved audit outcome represents progress, it must be recognised as a step in the right direction, not the destination. Setsoto still has significant work ahead to achieve a clean audit, restore full accountability, and build public confidence in its administration.
The DA will continue to monitor implementation closely and hold municipal leadership accountable to ensure that progress is not only achieved but sustained.