The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has commended the eThekwini Municipality for its transparency and comprehensive reporting on several matters, including service delivery, financial management, and governance.
The Municipality, led by Mayor Councillor Cyril Xaba, appeared before the committee in Cape Town yesterday, 20 May 2026, to account on a wide range of operational and administrative matters affecting the City.
During the engagement, Chairperson of the committee Songezo Zibi thanked the Mayor and City Manager, Musa Mbhele, for providing detailed information to the committee on time and for ensuring that all relevant officials were present.
Some members of the committee described the report presented by the Municipality as open and transparent.
Addressing concerns around the nature of the engagement, Zibi clarified that the City was not being singled out because of suspected wrongdoing.
Instead, he explained that the meeting formed part of SCOPA’s ongoing engagements with institutions that play a strategic role in growing the country’s economy, including metropolitan municipalities.
“We have already met with leadership of various state-owned enterprises, departments, and metros. Working together, we believe that we will achieve positive results,” said Zibi.
In welcoming the interaction, Mayor Xaba said engagements of this nature strengthen accountability and oversight within the Municipality.
“I made a commitment to the Auditor-General (AG) last year, which I continue to uphold today. This includes improving performance, transparency, accountability, and governance within the Municipality. I also committed to improving infrastructure management and accelerating the implementation of audit action plans to ensure that we do not have repeat findings,” said Xaba.
To reinforce accountability measures, the Mayor said the monitoring of audit action plans has now been elevated to both the Executive Committee and portfolio committees, where progress reports are tabled monthly.
Furthermore, audit matters have been given greater weighting in the performance agreements of the City Manager and senior managers.
These interventions are already yielding positive results.The City has reduced audit findings from 25 in the 2022/23 financial year to 13 in the 2024/25 financial year, reflecting steady progress towards achieving a clean audit.
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
Providing an update on financial sustainability, the Municipality assured SCOPA that its financial position remains stable and resilient.
The City has consistently received unqualified audit opinions over the past five years, with only a few matters raised during this period.
This stability is further reflected in the City’s strong credit ratings of AA- in the long term and A1+ in the short term.
In addition, the budget currently being implemented is fully funded, credible, and aligned with the City’s developmental priorities.
National Treasury has also affirmed the credibility of the proposed 2026/27 budget.
The Municipality further reported that its collection rate currently stands at 94%, which is in line with National Treasury norms. Importantly, the City remains fully up to date with payments to its bulk suppliers of water and electricity, namely Eskom and uMngeni-uThukela Water.
PROGRESS IN ADDRESSING AUDIT FINDINGS
The Municipality also outlined the progress being made in addressing findings raised by the Auditor-General. Over the past three years, audit findings have steadily declined from 25 in the 2022/23 financial year to 13 in the 2024/25 financial year.
The remaining findings relate mainly to expenditure management, procurement, contract management, and consequence management.
To address these issues, the Municipality highlighted improvements in compliance with supply chain management policies, particularly in relation to paying service providers within 30 days of receiving invoices.
As part of efforts to improve efficiency, the City is implementing an online invoice processing system that will reduce turnaround times, track invoices from receipt to payment, and allow service providers to monitor progress electronically.
In addition, the Municipality is finalising a new tender management system that will make it easier to identify government employees doing business with the state.
This intervention is expected to reduce conflicts of interest previously raised by the Auditor-General.
The Municipality also updated the committee on matters relating to the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
Officials indicated that the City has been working closely with the AG to resolve outstanding concerns.
As part of these efforts, the City Integrity and Investigations Directorate (CIID) has concluded investigations and initiated disciplinary processes.
At the same time, the Municipality’s legal department has begun processes to recover funds from individuals implicated in double-dipping, while other matters have been referred to law enforcement agencies for criminal investigation.
Regarding the increase in irregular expenditure, the Municipality explained that this was largely due to non-compliance with Preferential Procurement Regulations relating to local content requirements.
Consequently, several contracts had previously been concluded without the necessary local content specifications.
To prevent a recurrence, all new contracts now include clear minimum local content thresholds.
The City assured the committee that by the end of the next financial year there should be no irregular expenditure arising from local content non-compliance, as only 18 active contracts remain affected.
NON-REVENUE WATER
The Municipality also briefed the committee on measures being implemented to reduce non-revenue water (NRW), which currently stands at 53%.
To address this challenge, the City is implementing the Water and Sanitation Turnaround Strategy as part of broader trading services reforms introduced by National Treasury.
Key interventions under the strategy include:
- Replacement of old and faulty water meters
- Improved billing and customer data cleansing
- Water infrastructure maintenance optimisation
- Water pressure management
- Leak detection
- Pipe replacement projects, including the R1.2 billion Southern Aqueduct Project
- Responding to reported burst pipes and water leaks within 24 hours
The Southern Aqueduct Project involves replacing a 70-year-old 900mm diameter concrete pipe with a 1200mm diameter steel pipe and is expected to stabilise water supply in Durban central and southern areas.
In conclusion, Mayor Xaba assured the committee that all matters raised during the engagement would continue to receive focused attention.
He added that the Municipality has become increasingly stable and continues to make significant improvements in performance, governance, and accountability.
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