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MethodologyCorrectionsBuilt with evidence, not opinions.
  1. Municipalities
  2. George

Local Municipality

George

R0

Total value of 1 documented incidents

WC · GeorgeWC044

Garden Route District Municipality

Category

Local Municipality

Province

WC

Documented incidents

1

Seat

George

  • Score
  • Incidents
  • Leadership
  • Demographics
  • Water
  • Politics
  • Grants
  • Tenders
  • Trajectory
  • Financials
  • Budget
  • Debtors
Accountability IndexDraft

Composite 0–100 score (higher = better), from audit opinion, capex execution and linked incidents.

0/ 100Functioning
Audit67%
100/100unqualified
Capex—
n/acapex data not yet available
Incidents33%
80/1001 incident on record

Missing components (capex) excluded; remaining weights renormalised.

Linked incidents

Corruption incidents documented in the 4FactSake archive and linked to this municipality.

Infrastructure Theft2024

George Building Collapse: 34 Dead, "Entirely Preventable" — 13 MPa Concrete, Cracks Concealed, Engineer Struck Off

DocumentedRamaphosa EraDisciplinary

Leadership

Current municipal officials accountable for governance and finance, sourced from National Treasury.

Mayor

Mrs Browen Johnson

mayor@george.gov.za

Deputy Mayor

Mr Gert Van Niekerk

gvniekerk@george.gov.za

Municipal Manager

Mr Godfrey Louw

glouw@george.gov.za

Chief Financial Officer

Mr Riaan Du Plessis

caduplessis@george.gov.za

Speaker

Mr Gerrit Pretorius

gpretorius@george.gov.za
Demographics — Census 2022

Per-capita normalisation lets us put the financial figures into human terms.

Population

294 929

Households

71 468

Unemployment

20.7%

Electricity95.5%
Piped water94.3%
Flush toilet93.4%
Refuse collected90.7%
Water — Blue / Green / No Drop (DWS)

Department of Water and Sanitation incentive-based regulation. Each drop is graded Excellent → Critical (fuller drop = better); a numeric 0–100 score shows once DWS publishes one.

Blue Drop

Drinking water

Excellent

2023

Green Drop

Wastewater

Awaiting assessment

No Drop

Water loss (NRW)

Awaiting assessment

Source · DWS Blue / Green / No Drop reports — see methodology & sources panel below.

Conditional grants (Treasury)

National + provincial grants flowing to this muni. Conditional grants are tied to specific outcomes — underspend is a red flag for delivery, not a saving.

Latest year

23/24

Adjusted budget

R1.69B

Actually spent

R1.39B

Unspent

R305.6M

Utilisation

82.0%Mostly spent

R1.39B spent
R306M unspent
82% spent18% unspent

Largest conditional grants — box size = budget, colour = utilisation

Box size = budget · colour = utilisation (green = spent, red = underspent, hollow = no data). Hover a grant.

Equitable Share (unconditional)

ESG·Local Government Equitable Share
no data
R214.7M budgeted·— spent

ESG is not a conditional grant — it can be spent at the muni's discretion. Shown for scale only.

Tender awards (eTender Publication Portal)

Cross-referenced against the Restricted Suppliers List on the award date.

No award notices on file for this municipality yet. Coverage expands as the operator transcribes from eTenders.gov.za.

Once awards are loaded, this panel surfaces every published contract awarded by the muni, with B-BBEE level, supplier registration, and a flag for any awards made to suppliers on the National Restricted Suppliers List.

Accountability trajectory · 2020 – 2026

The line traces the audit opinion (higher = cleaner); bars are irregular/fruitless/unauthorised expenditure, dots are documented incidents, and dashed markers are Section 139 interventions. Sustained decline rarely happens in a single bad year.

R22MR45MR67MR90M2020 UIFW · R4M · irregular R4M · unauthorised R881K2021 UIFW · R90M · irregular R6M · fruitless R22K · unauthorised R84M2022 UIFW · R19M · irregular R15M · fruitless R729K · unauthorised R3M2023 UIFW · R173K · irregular R173K2024 UIFW · R71M · irregular R40M · unauthorised R31M2020 audit · Clean (with caveat)2021 audit · Clean2022 audit · Clean2023 audit · Clean2024 audit · Clean2024: incident #12020202120222023202420252026Clean auditQualifiedDisclaimer / adverseUIFW expenditure (bars)Documented incidentsSection 139 imposed

Audit opinion has improved over the period.

Financial Health — FY24/25

Cash position, solvency, and infrastructure-maintenance signal. Source: National Treasury cflow_v2 + financial_position_v2 + repmaint_v2.

Cash on hand

R1.33B

Net assets

R6.05B

Operating cash flow

—

Repairs & maintenance

R244.1M

National Treasury & AGSA

Public finance data ingested directly from National Treasury cubes (incexp_v2, capital_v2, audit_opinions, uifwexp).

Latest Audit Outcome — FY23/24

Unqualified - No findings

Irregular
R40.0M
Fruitless
R0
Unauthorised
R31.3M
AGSA report

Capital Spending — FY25/26

Original budgetR1.43B
Adjusted budgetR1.85B
Actual—

Treasury §71·76d agoTreasury MTREF·12d agoAGSA MFMA·today

Aged Balances — FY24/25[pre-audit]

Receivables from ratepayers (debtors) and amounts owed to suppliers (creditors). Source: National Treasury aged_debtor_v2 + aged_creditor_v2 cubes.

Owed TO the muni (receivables)

R594.1M

R272.0M (46%) over 1 year — effectively uncollectable

Water
R162.1M
Electricity
R103.5M
Property rates
R61.2M

Owed BY the muni (creditors)

R238.2M

Bulk electricity(Eskom)
R116.4M
Bulk water
R0
Trade
R121.8M

Methodology & sources

Live data from National Treasury cubes (incexp_v2, capital_v2, audit_opinions, uifwexp, aged_debtor_v2, aged_creditor_v2, cflow_v2, financial_position_v2, repmaint_v2, officials) and operator-curated AGSA Section 4(3) Material Irregularities, Stats SA Census, Cogta Section 139 intervention records, DWS Blue / Green / No Drop water-services audits, IEC Local Government Election results + political control history, and Treasury conditional grants (grants_v2) — allocation versus actual spend per grant. The Accountability Index methodology is a draft pending sensitivity testing — treat the score as a working signal, not a final verdict. It currently weighs three of four intended signals — audit opinion (50%), capital-budget execution (25%) and linked corruption incidents (25%); a fourth pillar, service delivery (Stats SA non-financial census), is not yet wired in. Where a signal is missing for a municipality, its weight is renormalised across the rest.