The eThekwini Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) detailed the challenges it face investigating unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless and wasteful (UIFW) expenditure.
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The eThekwini Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) wrote off R780 million in unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless and wasteful (UIFW) expenditure at a council meeting on Thursday.
Thamisanqa Xuma, an EFF councillor and the chairperson of MPAC in eThekwini, stated that one of the biggest challenges in investigating UIFW is the non-submission of reports by some municipal directorates.
He said this left the committee no choice but to cancel special meetings or accept 'laid-on-the-table' reports.
“We do not encourage laid-on-the-table reports because they are often lengthy, and there is very little time to read. The non-submission of reports invariably delays the work of the committee, especially as there is R3.3 billion of expenditure that still needs to be investigated. These delays impact the recoverability of the expenditure and consequence management,” Xuma said.
Municipal directorates and the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) identified a total of R40.2 million in UIFW for various directorates in 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26 financial years. The municipality stated that this money was irrecoverable and written off.
The reports disclosed deviations from the Supply Chain Management (SCM) policy.
Xuma stated that as part of the committee's oversight duties, they receive quarterly reports from the Financial Misconduct Disciplinary Board and the Executive Director: Corporate Services, to monitor the implementation of consequence management in the municipality
Rory Macpherson, eThekwini Ward 102 councillor, said those individuals and beneficiaries of these companies should be held accountable.
Speaking at the council meeting, EFF eThekwini councillor Thabani Miya suggested that the financial misconduct board meet monthly.
“We cannot wait for three months to hear about disciplinary matters. We have to recover the money. Those committing these atrocities have expensive cars and properties that can be attached,” he said.
LOCAL CONTENT
The MPAC report explained that the Preferential Procurement Regulations (PPR) 2017 require an organ of state to advertise a tender with a specification condition that only locally produced or locally manufactured goods meeting a stipulated minimum threshold for local production and content would be considered.
Concerning local content, the AGSA noted that 70 previously awarded contracts incurred further expenditure in contravention of local content provisions between July and December 2025. The contracts totalled R741 million.
Following an interview with the director of SCM, MPAC heard that there was no breach of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
“The root cause of the irregularity was oversight by line departments, supply chain management, and bid committees, and this was an error of a technical nature,” he said.
Xuma said the 2017 PPR were repealed in January 2023, and they were replaced by a new PPR.
“Local content is no longer applicable under these new regulations. Some contracts have run their course and reached their end dates. However, active contracts continue to incur irregular expenditure. Many other tenders are in the procurement processes and were not awarded, thus preventing additional irregular expenditure,” Xuma stated in his MPAC report.
Macpherson said that those struggling to get service delivery will suffer further.
Sunitha Maharaj, a Minority Front councillor, said the repeat findings for using expired contracts indicate complacent municipal management.
“Our accounting officer is not tightening the reins, and neither is there a political will to do so. It erodes public trust and evokes the ire of the public,” she said.
An assessment of MPAC functionality on the UIFW quarter 3 oversight period ending March 31, 2026, also found that the municipality may not have been fully compliant in its treatment of UIFW expenditure once it was incurred.