Johannesburg - Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Monday said he preferred the Democratic Alliance-led Western Cape municipalities' processes of enforcing good performance and will ensure a pro-active and hands-on approach at local government in Gauteng.
"The cautious approach is not working because things are going wrong in both small and big municipalities and residents are suffering," Makhura said as he delivered his State of the Province Address at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto campus.
"In fact, I like the Western Cape model where municipalities are put into line, whether they like it or not..we cannot let our municipalities off the hook, they receive huge budgets from the provincial government. Collaboration and accountability on all major service delivery and socio-economic initiatives will be enforced."
Makhura said some municipalities in the West Rand and Sedibeng regions faced serious financial problems, with some unable to pay monthly salaries. He lauded the DA-led Midvaal municipality for obtaining clean audits for the past three years, as announced in the auditor general's annual report released last week.
"I welcome the latest municipal audit outcomes and commend all Gauteng municipalities for obtaining 100 percent unqualified audits. Gauteng was also the only province without any qualified audit or disclaimer. However, we cannot close our eyes to the reality that local government faces many financial, institutional and service delivery challenges in our province. It is important that clean audit without delivery is not good."
Of the 257 municipalities audited, only 18 achieved clean audits for the 2017/2018 financial year. At least 13 of them are in the Western Cape, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu said last week.
The two members of the executive council (MECs) of finance and co-operative governance are expected to provide a report on the financial viability of all municipalities and infrastructure budgets and spending at key service delivery hot spots in the province, said Makhura.