BURGERSFORT
Cadre deployment and tenderpreneurs have crippled financial management in Limpopo municipalities, the DA in Limpopo said on Tuesday, after the Auditor-General (AG) revealed that 27 municipalities spent R235.85 million on financial consultants in 2024/2025 with little to show for it.
The party said it will ask MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Basikopo Makamu, to enforce penalty clauses against service providers responsible for faulty reporting, DA Limpopo Spokesperson for COGHSTA Jacques Smalle said.
“In the Consolidated General Reports on Local Government Audit Outcomes 2024/2025, the AG expressed concern that all 27 municipalities used consultants for financial reporting at a total cost of R235.85 million,” Smalle said.
He said despite this investment, 20 municipalities constituting 74%, submitted financial statements with material misstatements in the areas on which the consultants worked.
Of the 27 municipalities, the Fetakgomo-Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM), appears to be the third-biggest spender on consultants at R22.5 million, according to the recently released AG report.
The municipality has a long paper trail of corruption allegations that stretches back more than a decade and continued into 2025.
The most prominent case involves the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation into the “Operation Mabone” electrification project. The SIU was authorized under Proclamation R52 of 2014 to investigate allegations of corruption and maladministration in the affairs of FTLM.
An investigation found that the municipality participated in an existing contract between Mphaphuli Consulting and Vhembe District Municipality, but altered the terms to increase the cost of services by approximately R5,000 per household compared to Vhembe. The engineering company charged more than R16,000 per household in Fetakgomo-Tubatse, while its price in Vhembe was fixed at R11,000 per household.
The result was an overpayment of about R76 million. The contract’s initial value was approximately R168 million but was amended twice to increase its value to more than R326.4 million.
Other SIU findings paint a similar picture of waste. A 2019 final report into Fetakgomo-Tubatse Municipality found the municipality lost about R4.8 million for wrongfully firing an official based on a doctored audit report, and was overcharged R2.2 million for the disciplinary hearing itself.
The report also found the disciplinary committee chairperson and a language facilitator charged for days when the hearing did not sit, and claimed hotel reimbursement even though the municipality paid the bill directly.
The SIU report further noted that since the probe the municipality lost a R240 million investment in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal, about R10 million to unfair dismissals, and about R160.3 million to malfeasance. The municipality has also twice been placed under administration.
More recent allegations have surfaced. In January 2025, the municipality’s second quarter audit committee report, signed off on 28 January 2025, called for a forensic investigation into alleged irregular payments exceeding R24 million.
The committee flagged R1.92 million paid despite the absence of written cession agreements, including payments linked to Duumba Wa Dipitja and Technicrete. A further R9.18 million in payments could not be confirmed by the main contractor, Mafumu Consulting.
Earlier this year, the Sekhukhune Times reported that Fetakgomo-Tubatse allegedly paid R10 million to a ghost company between June and December 2025 that reportedly rendered no services. It was further alleged that the money was shared among company directors, administrative officials, and members of political leadership. Municipal spokesperson Mahlako Komane denied the claims, saying the municipality could not trace any such payment and that all payments are made only after services are verified.
Smalle said the pattern reflects deeper governance failures. “Cadre deployment and tenderpreneurs have paralyzed Limpopo municipal finance structures,” said Smalle.
He says the AG findings prove that outsourcing has not fixed capacity problems, with nearly three-quarters of municipalities submitting flawed statements despite paying consultants.
Smalle argues that the province must shift from outsourcing to building in-house expertise.
“Questions remain about the real value for money and the lack of capacity of consultants,” he said.