Gayton McKenzie’s department guilty of irregular expenditure of R67 million

The Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture (DSAC), headed up by Minister Gayton McKenzie, reported R10.43 million in irregular expenditure for the 2024/25 fiscal year.

However, the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) found that the department incurred irregular expenditure amounting to R42 million.

This did not improve in the 2025/26 financial year, with the AGSA identifying irregular expenditure of R67 million at the DSAC.

High irregular expenditure is one of many issues the AGSA has identified at the DSAC, including material non-compliance with legislation.

McKenzie was asked about his department’s financial controls in the 2024/25 fiscal year in a recent Parliamentary question.

MP Sithembile Nkosi asked the minister what measures he has implemented to strengthen financial controls and improve the accuracy and credibility of performance reporting.

In response, McKenzie listed various initiatives he and his department have undertaken to strengthen financial controls.

Some of these initiatives include strengthening supply chain management compliance, preventative and detective controls, and stricter assurance functions.

“During the 2025/26 financial year, the department strengthened its processes for the assessment and verification of performance information,” McKenzie added.

“The department has developed an audit action plan, reviewed by Internal Audit, which identifies the root cause of each 2024/25 audit finding and sets out the corrective action, the responsible programme and the due date.” 

The minister explained that progress on the implementation of this action plan is reported quarterly to departmental management and to the Audit Committee.

However, these controls do not appear to have paid off. For the 2025/26 financial year, the AGSA identified R67 million in irregular expenditure.

The AGSA noted that this figure was also likely understated, since the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex and Robben Island had been unable to quantify their irregular expenditure.

DSAC’s financial controls

Despite McKenzie’s plans to strengthen financial controls in the 2025/26 financial year, the AGSA identified only slow progress.

In 2025/26, the AGSA found that the DSAC’s progress on addressing historical irregular expenditure has remained slow.

It said 16% of the DSAC’s 2023/24 balance and 5% of the 2024/25 balance had been addressed by year-end.

The DSAC’s reported irregular-expenditure balance had moved from R861 million to R839 million over the administration term, though the AGSA said this balance is likely understated as well.

On top of this, the DSAC’s fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounted to R1.68 million across eleven entities in the 2025/26 financial year. 

The AGSA identified delayed debt collection, late payments to creditors, unspent conditional grants, budget overspending, and deficits at several DSAC entities.

In South Africa, the DSAC is tasked with providing an enabling environment for the sport, arts and culture sector to foster an active, creative, winning, and socially cohesive nation.

As part of this mandate, the DSAC oversees various sports, arts, and culture-related entities.

This includes the National Arts Council, the National Film and Video Foundation, the National Heritage Council, and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.

The AGSA identified weaknesses in internal audit, audit committee effectiveness, and governance at several entities that the DSAC oversees in 2025/26.

This includes inadequate monitoring of corrective action plans, insufficient internal assurance, and critical vacancies that increased accountability risks.

The AGSA highlighted two material irregularities in particular. The first involved departmental transfer payments.

These payments had not been used for their intended purpose, resulting in an estimated loss of R7.5 million.

The second material irregularity was the late submission of Robben Island’s 2024/25 financial statements, which has since been resolved.