Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke told Parliament on Wednesday recent cholera deaths were a 'harsh reminder' of continued neglect of municipal infrastructure.
Only 38 of SA's 257 municipalities received clean audits in 2022, down from 41, with half of those receiving them in the Western Cape.The number of South African municipalities that received clean audits decreased in 2022, with the Auditor-General telling legislators on Wednesday that a dearth of skills, inadequate leadership, as well as a lack of accountability in local governance were contributing to ongoing service delivery failures.
More than half of the clean audits came from the Western Cape, while no municipalities received clean audits in the Free State or the North West. "Our teams have witnessed the impact of water supply issues, and experienced directly the impact of untreated wastewater," she said."They have seen that in far too many communities there is inadequate sanitation".