90% of municipalities in the Western Cape receive clean or unqualified opinions | Western Cape Government

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90% of municipalities in the Western Cape receive clean or unqualified opinions

29 July 2021

Four municipal audit opinions that remained outstanding a month ago, have come back as clean. These are Stellenbosch, West Coast District, Bergrivier and Hessequa municipalities.

This means the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) has awarded eighteen municipalities out of thirty in the province with clean audit opinions for the 2019-2020 financial year. A further nine municipalities received unqualified opinions.

Anton Bredell, Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning in the Western Cape has praised the municipalities.

“This means that 90% of municipalities in the Western Cape received either clean or unqualified audits. I want to highlight West Coast District municipality who received their tenth clean audit in a row, an unparalleled achievement in South Africa.”

Bredell says clean and unqualified audits are an important tool because it is one way that communities can be reassured about the performance of their local councils.

“Our municipalities in the Western Cape are not perfect and they are constantly looking for ways to improve. I am the first to acknowledge this. But what this shows is that the people’s money is being spent properly on public services, and not stolen by corrupt officials and politicians.”

The municipalities in the Western Cape that have received clean audits are: Stellenbosch, West Coast District, Mossel Bay, Cape Agulhas, Overstrand, Swellendam, Theewaterskloof, Cape Winelands, Breede Valley, Drakenstein, Langeberg, Witzenberg, Saldanha Bay, Swartland, Central Karoo, Bergrivier, Hessequa and Prince Albert.

Beaufort-West municipality is the only municipality in the Western Cape that received a disclaimed audit opinion with findings while Kannaland and Laingsburg received qualified opinions.

Media Enquiries: 

James-Brent Styan

Spokesperson for the Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell

Mobile:                   084 583 1670

Telephone:            021 483 2820

E-mail:                    James-Brent.Styan@westerncape.gov.za