With only 41 municipalities achieving clean audits and over 100 municipalities operating with unfunded budgets, the report revealed the continued trend of persistent accountability and financial management challenges faced by municipalities, resulting in service delivery failures and institutional collapse. 

The biggest metros, which are situated in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal Province, recorded an overall mixed set of audit outcomes, with the City of Cape Town being the only metro to record a clean audit while two of the Gauteng metros, City of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, regressed.

eThekwini and the City of Johannesburg recorded unchanged unqualified audits with findings.

The City of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane have faced major political instability because of administrative changes that emanated from changes in the political leadership of the councils. Some would argue that the City of Cape Town’s performance isn’t a true reflection of equitable service delivery in the city, due to the state that the informal settlements are in.

This raises a question to whether the notion "where the DA governs it governs better" is indeed true.  Although the performance of most municipalities in the Western Cape, which mostly recorded clean audits, can be attributed to good governance due to a seemingly stable political leadership as opposed to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal whose municipal councils are characterised by unstable coalitions.  

--SABC--