Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has expressed concern over on the state of local government in the province. He says poor audit outcomes in a number of municipalities are a result of bad governance and political interference.
The Eastern Cape municipalities recorded the highest level of irregular expenditure across the country.
Delivering his maiden State-of-the-Province-Address in Bhisho on Friday, Mabuyane said issues of irregular and fruitless expenditure needed to be speedily addressed.
“If the state of local government continues to be what we see we are going to find it difficult to realize these targets, to realize this vision we’ve got to fix local government. The only thing we are not going to do is to use administration to fix political problems, we’ve got to focus on politics and councillors have to understand that they have a responsibility to stabilise council.”
Senior researcher at the Mkahanda-based government watchdog – the Public Service Accountability Monitor, Tlamelo Mothudi, says implementation should follow Mabuyane’s speech.
“I think we are at a point where actions speak louder than words. A lot of the things that were spoken about, these are things we know about – the current state of health care in South Africa, we know about education more importantly in the Eastern Cape. So it’s all good and well and it’s great to see that the 6th administration is trying to hit the ground running and they are trying to ensure that they grow the economy, but we need to see action,” says Mothudi.
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