by Anna Majavu
Makana executive mayor Yandiswa Vara says she is “definitely not proud” that the municipality has received its fourth negative audit opinion in a row.
Speaking at the City Hall on 14 March during a consultative Integrated Development Plan meeting with residents, Vara said the municipality’s troubles “have been coming on for some time, and it is not going to take [only]a night to solve them”.
Earlier this month, the Auditor-General (AG) gave Makana municipality another disclaimer after finding R577.4 million unauthorised expenditure and R7.8 million fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The AG also pointed out that these figures might not even be accurate because the AG’s office had not been provided with enough financial evidence to confirm the amounts.
“Are we happy or proud of the current situation? Definitely, we will not be proud of that. I believe that myself and the team might not be there yet, and we might be seen as if we are not doing enough. But we are doing all that we can in ensuring that Makana municipality gets out of this mess. These are not problems of yesterday,” Vara said.
She said it was fortunate that different activist and lobby groups existed in the town and said that the municipality wanted to work with them all.
Vara also apologized to the community for delays in responding to complaints about broken or disconnected services. She explained that sometimes, problems could not be attended to because the municipal vehicles were out of order. On other occasions, the parts needed for repairs were not available.
“We are doing all that we can. We are confident that Makana will get out of this situation – not only by the municipality alone but because of the support of the communities,” Vara said.
