South Africa’s metros are expected to set the standard for good governance – but most are falling short. Despite serving nearly half the country’s households and having larger budgets and capacity, Cape Town was the only metro to receive a clean audit in 2023/24, according to Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke.

Audit opinions are a key test of whether councillors, residents, and higher levels of government can trust a municipality’s financial and performance reporting. But metro audit outcomes are deteriorating.

Buffalo City, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay, and Tshwane all received qualified audits, meaning their financial statements contained material errors and could not be fully trusted. Even more concerning, Tshwane and Mangaung disclosed “significant doubt” about their ability to continue operating.

In her report, the Auditor-General was blunt: metros are “plagued by poor revenue management, debt collection and budgeting practices, coupled with financial losses due to poor-quality spending.”