The auditor-general's report paints a bleak picture. Just 41 out of 257 municipalities got clean audits. AG Tsakani Maluleke was in despair while trying to explain that municipal officials keep doing the same thing.

Our municipalities are repeat offenders; they just don't seem willing to straighten their acts up.

Municipalities around the country cannot account for how they spent their budgets. Some of them are terrible at record keeping. SA municipalities in the previous financial year spent eye-watering amounts of money hiring consultants to do work meant to be done by municipal staff.

Yet, even with consultants on board, very few of them managed to receive clean audits. It is not surprising that South Africans continue not to receive basic services while taxes are spent by these municipalities.

Samkelo Latakisa, email