The briefing, set to be focused on the 2018/19 Local Government Audit Outcomes, is expected to paint a clear picture of municipalities' financial woes. This, as they have for years been in the spotlight for their shocking service delivery, maladministration, corruption, political interference, high vacancy rates and mismanagement of funds amongst other issues. The last report by AG Kimi Makwetu painted a bleak picture of the financial state of municipalities when he outlined that only 18 of the 257 municipalities had a clean audit. Of the 18, 12 were in the Western Cape. Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Northern Cape each had one municipality with a clean audit. While the Eastern Cape had two municipalities with a clean audit, the Free State and the North West had none.

Makwetu highlighted that municipalities in these provinces needed urgent intervention.

He stated that the lack of accountability and irregular expenditure was one of the major causes of poor local government audits.  

Following President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement that R20 billion would be directed to municipalities to help fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, expectations are high that Makwetu will put an emphasis on how these funds are set to be used and how the financial mismanagement thereof will be detrimental for municipalities.

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