Among those claiming overtime are ghost workers and prisoners.
The Free State has been named the worst-run province in South Africa by the auditor-general (AG) due to its underperforming 16 municipalities plagued by poor financial reporting, non-compliance with legislation and deteriorating infrastructure.
The cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) portfolio committee heard that things are not improving in the province, but instead are worsening. The committee, led by Dr Zweli Mkhize, held an oversight visit in the province in late July, which revealed that urgent intervention by national and provincial authorities is needed.
Municipalities in the province fail to give residents quality service delivery due to corruption, mismanagement and bloated staff.
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Staff taking overtime
The committee found maladministration includes irregular appointments, unpaid Eskom bills and deceased individuals claiming overtime.
At the centre of staff claiming overtime is the Mangaung metro municipality, headquartered in Bloemfontein. Sello More, Mangaung city manager, revealed that the metro spent R39 million on overtime in the 2023/24 financial year.
Some employees were found to have worked up to 120 hours overtime a month. Among those claiming overtime are ghost workers and prisoners. However, More said the metro has implemented a system that will cap or minimise overtime by staff.
Internal investigation about overtime
Gregory Nthatisi, Mangaung mayor, said investigations revealed that there were employees in the upper echelons of the municipality who approved people who were not even in the Free State, who were not employed by the municipality and some who were in jail to receive a salary, including overtime.
He assured that disciplinary action had been taken against those implicated by the investigation. Nthatisi says he has faith the new system will work successfully to reduce overtime abuse, but there might be challenges with the system, as it is still new.
The committee were told that staff issues, including employee shortages, equipment shortages and other problems significantly affect service delivery for the metro. However, R61 million has been set aside to fill vacant positions.
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Issues in the province
The AG’s Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes for 2023/24 named Free State as the worst-run province, followed by Northern Cape and North West.
Things have worsened in the province, as the AG noted that six municipalities failed to submit their financial statements for the 2023/2024 financial year, an increase from four in the previous year. However, not one of the municipalities in the province received a clean audit.
Making matters worse, performance reports from 13 municipalities in the province were deemed unreliable.
Eskom debt in the province decreased from R6.47 billion to R6.22 billion. However, the AG highlighted this was mainly due to Eskom’s debt-relief programme.
Recipe for disaster
Professor Daniel Meyer, from the University of Johannesburg’s School of Public Management, told Newzroom Afrika the report found that 16 municipalities in the province had unfunded budgets, meaning they budgeted without having the income to back it up. “That is a recipe for overspending and deepening debt.”
Commenting on the province’s debt level, he believes Matjhabeng municipality will never recover from the more than R8 billion debt it is in. Meyer said that the root of the problem lies in the absence of accountability.
“There’s overtime being paid well above what labour regulations allow. In Mafube, the municipality collects pension contributions but doesn’t pay them out to workers who retire. That’s financial misconduct on another level.”
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