In the year of local government elections, we must take advantage of the opportunity of the incoming administration to advocate for improved management of municipalities. The cohort of leaders have a huge responsibility to turn around the current undesirable state of affairs, for the benefit of all citizens who depend on municipalities for reliable service delivery.

Recently, auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke simultaneously tabled the 2019/20 consolidated general report for local government audit outcomes as well as the results of a real-time audit on how municipalities spent on Covid-19-related initiatives. The latter is the third special audit report on the government’s financial management of the relief funding made available as a response to the pandemic...