Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has commended the eThekwini Municipality for its transparency and comprehensive reporting on governance, financial management and service delivery challenges.
The municipality, led by Mayor Cyril Xaba, appeared before the committee in Cape Town on Wednesday, 20 May 2026, to account on a wide range of operational and administrative matters affecting the city.
SCOPA Chairperson Songezo Zibi thanked the Mayor and City Manager Musa Mbhele for submitting information to the committee on time and ensuring all relevant officials attended the meeting.
Zibi stressed that the engagement did not imply wrongdoing by the municipality, saying it 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.
Xaba welcomed the engagement, describing it as an important mechanism for strengthening 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,” Xaba said.
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 is reviewed monthly.
Audit matters have also been assigned greater weighting in the performance agreements of the city manager and senior managers.
The municipality reported that these interventions are already yielding positive results and contributed to a reduction in audit findings 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 improve compliance, the city is implementing an online invoice processing system aimed at reducing payment turnaround times, tracking invoices electronically and allowing service providers to monitor progress online.
The municipality is also finalising a new tender management system intended to identify government employees doing business with the state and reduce conflicts of interest previously flagged by the Auditor-General.
On financial performance, eThekwini said it had maintained unqualified audit opinions over the past five years and remained financially stable.
The City said its current budget was fully funded and aligned with developmental priorities, while National Treasury had affirmed the credibility of the proposed 2026/27 budget.
The municipality added that its collection rate currently stood at 94%, in line with National Treasury norms, and confirmed that it remained up to date with payments to bulk suppliers Eskom and uMngeni-uThukela Water.
The city also briefed SCOPA on progress in resolving concerns linked to the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
Municipal officials said investigations by the City Integrity and Investigations Directorate had been concluded, with disciplinary processes initiated against implicated individuals.
The municipality’s legal department has also started processes to recover funds linked to double-dipping allegations, while other matters have been referred to law enforcement agencies for criminal investigation.
Irregular expenditure
Addressing irregular expenditure, the municipality said much of the increase resulted from non-compliance with Preferential Procurement Regulations relating to local content requirements.
The city said several contracts had previously been awarded without the required local content specifications, but all new contracts now include minimum local content thresholds.
Officials said only 18 active contracts remained affected and expressed confidence that irregular expenditure linked to local content non-compliance would be eliminated by the end of the next financial year.
Turnaround strategy and infrastructure upgrades
The municipality also outlined measures being implemented to reduce non-revenue water (NRW), which currently stands at 53%.
It announced that it is intensifying efforts to reduce water losses and improve supply reliability through the implementation of its Water and Sanitation Turnaround Strategy.
Xaba said the turnaround strategy forms part of broader trading services reforms introduced by National Treasury and is focused on improving operational efficiency and infrastructure management.
Key interventions include replacing old and faulty water meters, improving billing systems and customer data cleansing, optimising water infrastructure maintenance, pressure management, leak detection, and accelerating pipe replacement projects.
The municipality said it is also prioritising rapid response times to burst pipes and water leaks, with teams expected to attend to reported incidents within 24 hours.
Among the flagship projects underway is the R1.2 billion Southern Aqueduct Project, which involves replacing a 70-year-old 900mm concrete pipeline with a new 1200mm steel pipe.
The project is expected to stabilise water supply in Durban central and southern areas. – SAnews.gov.za
