News24 reports that Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has proposed a skills exchange between the worst and best-performing municipalities.
Addressing a local government indaba in Durban on Tuesday, she pointed out that local government was the most important of the three spheres of government because it directly provided services to communities. It was of paramount importance to explore ways of reviving this sphere of governance which were not explored before, she noted. In her view, the "cross-pollination" or skills exchange could "work wonders" and inspire poor-performing municipalities. "The worst and the best-performing municipalities should be paired and partner up. This would lead to the sharing of knowledge and possibly, the cross-pollination of ideas and learning. We should get the municipal manager from the one to go to the other and see if this does not lead to the improvement of the outcomes we saw being delivered by the Auditor-General (AG), Tsakani Maluleke," Dlamini Zuma told delegates said. Last month, the AG reported that only 16% of SA’s 257 municipalities had a clean audit for the 2020-21 financial year, with the overall standard of financial management having regressed in the past five years. Dlaminin Zuma also encouraged underperforming municipalities to seek out Maluleke and her team before submitting financials and to "learn from her team" instead of spending millions on external financial reporting services. KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala cautioned that the "only way to turn the corner in terms of KZN municipalities' performance" is to have "serious consequence management in place".
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Juniour Khumalo at News24
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