Government21.04.2023

How much South Africa spends investigating municipal corruption

R17.5 million was spent since 1 January 2019 on investigations into maladministration, fraud and corruption in municipalities.

The Western Cape has spent more than any other province on investigating municipal corruption using Section 106 reports.

This was revealed by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Thembi Nkadimeng, in a round of parliamentary questions published on 31 March.

When a member of a provincial executive council (MEC) has reason to believe there has been or is maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice at a municipal level, the MEC must trigger an investigation into the municipality in terms of section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act.

The MEC must then either request that the municipality provides information to the MEC or, if necessary, the MEC can appoint a person or people to investigate the matter.

A 2022 briefing of the Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Water and Sanitation and Human Settlements provides a good case study on the efficacy of section 106 reports.

The briefing detailed the outcomes of investigations into corruption at a municipal level in the Free State.

The Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) provided feedback on their work to fight corruption in the Free State.

At the time of the meeting, the Hawks said that they had 44 cases on hand. Of those, 32 were being investigated, and eight were on the court roll.

However, none of those cases were pursued as a result of the intervention of ministers in terms of section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act.

The corruption cases that the Hawks worked on emanated from findings from the Auditor-General, complaints from municipal managers, whistle-blowers, service providers, and general complaints received from the public.

The SIU had 42 cases within the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), a.k.a. Hawks, of which ten still needed to be sent to the NPA at the time of the meeting.

There were also 32 cases with the National Prosecuting Authority that had been sent from the DPCI and 20 additional matters.

13 matters from the SIU were in court, and just three have been finalised.

The SIU also said that most municipal fraud and corruption findings originate from the Auditor-General.

Provincial breakdown

While it is unclear from that case study how much value Section 106 enquiries add, the government has spent R17.5 million on the investigations since 2019.

Data from the North-West and Kwa-Zulu Natal was not made available, so it is unclear how much was spent on section 106 reports in these areas.

All Section 106 investigations in the Free State and Limpopo were conducted internally, so no fees were paid to a service provider.

The table below gives a province-by-province breakdown of expenditure on section 106 reports:

Province Number of Section 106 investigations Total expenditure
Eastern Cape 15 R750,00
Free State 5 R0
Gauteng 2 R4.87 million
Limpopo 6 R0
Mpumalanga 7 R4.58 million
Northern Cape 0 R0
Western Cape 5 R7.25 million

Now read: Municipality paid R11 million for service which is free through Google Maps

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