Lobby group AfriForum has launched a formal Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application targeting the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), following the Auditor-General’s (AG’s) 2024/25 consolidated general report on local government audit outcomes.

The legal application seeks to uncover records concerning the appointment, oversight, and accountability of senior municipal officials across South Africa’s local governments.

The move follows a scathing municipal audit report that exposed widespread financial distress, infrastructure collapse, and a systemic lack of consequences for poorly performing administrators.

AfriForum's application comes on the heels of the AG's findings, which it says paint a grim picture of an ongoing accountability crisis. The AG report highlights that only 39 out of 257 municipalities (15%) managed to achieve a clean audit.

Further stagnation gripped 57% of municipalities compared with the 2020/21 cycle, while 15% regressed, including three major metropolitan municipalities.

Operational uncertainty faces 54 municipalities, while 62 are in severe financial distress. A total of 116 municipalities adopted completely unfunded budgets, illegally committing to billions in spending without revenue sources.

The report further notes that municipalities spent R1.6-billion on private financial consultants, yet 76% of those municipalities still submitted financial reports marred by material errors.

"Eskom debt continues to spiral, audit outcomes remain poor, critical infrastructure is collapsing, and debt relief programmes have largely failed to restore municipalities to financial sustainability," AfriForum states.

A core driver behind the decline of local government is the appointment of politically connected individuals to high-ranking administrative positions, the organisation believes.

Rather than staffing municipalities with qualified professionals, AfriForum argues that failing officials are simply shielded from accountability.

AfriForum’s adviser for local government affairs Deidré Steffens criticises the lack of gatekeeping in municipal hiring.

"Instead of ensuring that municipalities are managed by suitably qualified and competent professionals, officials with questionable track records often appear to move from one municipality to another without meaningful accountability."

To uncover the mechanics behind this systemic failure, AfriForum’s PAIA application demands that Cogta hand over comprehensive records, such as the records of previously dismissed municipal officials and ongoing disciplinary proceedings.

It wants inquiries into unlawful appointments, competency assessments, and exemptions from basic qualification requirements, and detailed files on financial misconduct investigations and State interventions in failing municipalities and compliance data regarding the Municipal Debt Relief Programme.

The group also wants evidence of municipal corruption and maladministration cases formally referred to law enforcement agencies. AfriForum’s goal with the PAIA application is to establish whether State oversight mechanisms are working or if they have completely broken down, it says.

AfriForum emphasises that taxpayers have a fundamental right to know how their local governments are being run and by whom.

"Citizens deserve to know whether officials responsible for poor governance are being held accountable or simply being recycled through the local government system," Steffens states.

"They also deserve transparency on whether appointment processes are being properly monitored and whether intervention measures are producing any meaningful results."