Editorial: A-G team deserves recognition

The auditor-general’s work inspires hope, especially when the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa has given us every reason to feel like nothing seems to be functioning.

While this may sound like applauding the fish for swimming, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s team deserves recognition for shining the spotlight on how taxpayers’ hard-earned cash is spent.

They do this every year without fail and with so much enthusiasm despite the many challenges they encounter in obtaining financial records from various government departments.

A quick glance at her reports shows that the usual suspects have performed worse, instead of getting their house in order. Take for example what she had to say about the SABC and South African Post Office (Sapo), starting with the public broadcaster.

Its finances were in such a mess that she could not express an opinion.

The worst audit opinion, a disclaimer, is a regression from the qualified audit opinion the SABC obtained in the prior year. It incurred a profit loss of R1.127billion as at March 31, 2023, and its current liabilities exceeded its current assets by R612 million.

The picture was no different at the Sapo. It, too, obtained its worst audit opinion for the fourth year in a row.

And just like at SABC, Maluleke could not express an audit opinion because of being unable to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for such.

The group and company incurred losses of R2161 777 000 and R2174 582 000, respectively, for the year ended March 2023.

Total liabilities also exceeded total assets by R747 8805 000 and R750 5923 000 while current liabilities exceeded their current assets by R973 9917 000 and R10 598 828 000 for the group and company, respectively.

It’s worth noting that both these entities fall under Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele, a key Ramaphosa ally. That may explain why we are not seeing anyone being held accountable.

Both received massive bailouts to turnaround the entities, but it seems the money is pumped into a bottomless pit at huge a cost to the taxpayer.

If anything, the A-G’s reports are proof that Ramaphosa's promised accountability was just hot air. In reality, the opposite has happened.

Cape Times