Gregory Nthatisi will deliver the budget vote during a special council sitting.

It remains to be seen if council members will vote for the budget after they twice failed to adopt the 2022/23 budget. ANC councillors allegedly voted with opposition parties against the budget following several concerns.

ALSO READ: Troubled metro finally adopt controversial budget

The tabling of this much-anticipated budget also comes after Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke flagged the Free State metro for its failures. Maluleke said the cash-strapped metro has once again failed to improve its audit outcomes.

ALSO READ: Troubled Mangaung Metro fails to improve audit outcomes

Mangaung is the only Free State metro that has failed to receive an unqualified audit with or without findings. Instead, the metro could only receive a qualified audit with findings, meaning it has issues of misstatements and/or insufficient or incorrect information. The financial troubles of the metro have landed it under serious scrutiny by the national government and led to it being placed under administration. According to Maluleke, only seven Free State municipalities received unqualified audits (meaning only some issues on reporting were raised) and none received clean audits. Maluleke also says Mangaung is among several struggling municipalities in the country.

ALSO READ: Mangaung Metro among municipalities in dire financial position

In her report, Maluleke says the financial position of 70 (29%) of the 241 municipalities where the AG completed audits was so dire that they had to disclose significant doubt about their ability to fully operate in the future.

Maluleke says these municipalities included the Tshwane and Mangaung metros in Gauteng and the Free State. These two metros were responsible for 10% of the total local government budget and service delivery to 9% of the households in the country.

The Mangaung metro is still under the national government’s administration after failing to recover from its financial woes.

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