Tsakani Maluleke in conversation with Ann Bernstein
- Ann Bernstein, CDE’s executive director, spoke to Tsakani Maluleke, South Africa’s auditor-general (AGSA) in July 2025, about the current state of accountability in South Africa.
- Ms Maluleke is justifiably proud of the job she and her team perform, which, she explained, is the envy of auditors-general across the world. The World Bank has rated the AGSA as one of two supreme audit institutions worldwide that are ‘fully independent’.
- When asked about the public perception that there are no real consequences for officials who waste or misuse public money year after year, and whether the AGSA has the power to do something about this, she explained that the AGSA’s powers are mainly to audit and report. However, she indicated that they can refer matters to law enforcement and that there should be more effective collaboration between the AGSA, the Public Protector, the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit.
- Based on the audit outcomes she has produced, she expressed grave concern about governance failures, unstable councils, and weak internal controls at the local government level, including in most of the country’s metros.
- However, the problem is not only municipal officials. In her view the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the provincial executive are mandated to review a municipality’s performance plan, but almost never hold municipalities to account in this way. “We keep spiralling instead of regularly correcting,” she said.
- Overall audit outcomes of seven of the eight metros have continued to regress since 2020/21. Only the City of Cape Town attained a clean audit in the most recent AGSA report. The City of Johannesburg was unable to even prepare credible financial statements.
- When asked about the passing of the Public Procurement Act in 2024, she said the Act moved in the right direction but, without better leadership and a system that allows people to implement processes, monitor them, and holds them to account, it is probably an exercise in futility.
