Every June the Auditor-General tables the consolidated audit outcomes for the country's 257 municipalities. The 2024-25 report, tabled on 24 June 2026, closes the books on the sixth administration elected in November 2021, four months before voters choose the seventh on 4 November 2026.
The headline outcomes: 39 municipalities (15%) achieved clean audits. None of the eight metropolitan municipalities did, although metros manage 54% of the local-government budget. Fifty-seven percent of municipalities ended the term with the same audit outcome they started with in 2020-21 and 15% regressed; 76% submitted financial statements that were materially misstated. Irregular expenditure accumulated since 2021-22 stood at R145.21 billion, 87% of it from procurement non-compliance. Water losses cost R14.73 billion and electricity losses R21.63 billion. Forty-five percent of councils adopted unfunded budgets, committing R288.17 billion they did not have, while R1.61 billion was spent on financial consultants. The Free State and North West recorded material non-compliance at every municipality; the Northern Cape at 97%.
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke's verdict: "Over the past four years, mayors and councils have made limited progress to strengthen governance and improve service delivery, as residents continue experiencing unreliable services and deteriorating infrastructure." She called for professionalisation of local government and consequence management as the incoming councils take office. The record is filed as a child of the systemic municipal-collapse umbrella so that its R145 billion is not added to that record's total.