The most corrupt province in South Africa

KwaZulu-Natal has recorded the most corruption cases linked to local government officials among South Africa’s provinces since 2021.

South Africa’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has investigated 170 cases of corruption in KwaZulu-Natal alone since 2021, with only 46 of these cases resolved through sanctions.

This was revealed by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa in response to a recent parliamentary question from DA MP AM van Zyl.

Hlabisa was asked about the total number of recorded corruption cases against local government officials his department has investigated since 2021, and the specified cases that have resulted in sanctions.

Before providing the relevant figures, the minister emphasised that municipalities are an independent sphere of government, and are not investigated “willy-nilly”.

“But of course, we view allegations of corruption with utmost gravity,” Hlabisa said. 

“Numerous measures are being introduced to ensure that we work together with the provincial government to do an investigation as a first instance, and also with municipalities to ensure that allegations of corruption are being attended to.”

The minister said that, since 2021, his department has 100 recorded cases of corruption linked to local government officials.

Of these 100 cases, 28 have been resolved either through dismissal, civil recovery, suspensions or disciplinary actions. Hlabisa noted that this does not include all cases in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State.

The minister also provide insight into local government corruption cases the SIU has recorded over the past five years.

While the minister did not provide insight into the number of cases across all nine provinces, he said KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of cases at 170.

This is significantly more than the 39 cases investigated in Mpumalanga and the 30 recorded in the Northern Cape.

Hlabisa explained that, of the 170 cases of local government corruption investigate in KwaZulu-Natal, only 46 have been resolved.

The table below shows the number of local government corruption cases the SIU has investigated in five of the country’s nine provinces since 2021.

Province	SIU corruption cases recorded since 2021	Cases of corruption resolved through sanctions
KwaZulu-Natal	170	46
Mpumalanga	39	24
Northern Cape	30	0
Eastern Cape	20	1
Gauteng	4	3

‘Willy-nilly’ lifestyle audits

In light of the significant corruption seen across the country, Hlabisa was asked why his department has not worked with the Public Service Commission to implement mandatory lifestyle audits in South Africa’s municipalities.

The minister explained that, because local government is an independent sphere of government, “we cannot willy-nilly introduce the lifestyle audit”.

He said the immediate oversight role in local government falls on a municipality’s mayor and council, followed by the provincial government.

He noted that his department can only intervene in instances where neither the municipality or provincial government have taken action against reported corruption. 

“Otherwise, we may experience backlash in terms of the law,” he said.

However, the minister said his department has been commissioned by the national Cabinet to compile a register of people who were dismissed from local government roles.

This is to address the problem of officials who are fired from one municipality being hired at another municipality.

Hlabisa noted that there is a problem with this register, as a person who resigned while their case had not been finalised, cannot legally be classified as someone who was dismissed. 

“That is just law which we need to attend as a government in order to deal with that case,” he said.

“But again, even if we can change it as a government, a person can challenge you in the court of law. I don’t think there will be legs to stand.”

Hlabisa’s comments come as South Africa’s munipalities are in dire straits, with the Auditor-General (AG) flagging instances of corruption, maladministration and mismanagement year after year.

In the AG’s Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes for 2023/24, only 16% of the country’s municipalities achieved clean audit outcomes.

The lion’s share of South Africa’s municipalities received either unqualified or qualified audit outcomes with findings.

“When municipalities receive material findings on their performance reports, this means that the performance information that they have reported is not credible, which weakens the accountability processes,” the AG said. 

“Material non-compliance signals a disregard for legislation or significant lapses in control, which is often an indicator of potential financial mismanagement and a leadership culture that does not emphasise the importance of compliance.”

“An unqualified audit opinion with findings is not a desirable outcome and municipalities should not become complacent when they receive such an outcome.”