GOVERNANCE RECORD
Follow Nelson Mandela Bay's audit record, service delivery signals, governance weaknesses and potential improvements.
Audit opinions test the credibility of reporting, compliance and performance information. They are not a full service-delivery score, and a qualified opinion is not proof of theft.
Source trail: municipal MPAC oversight report for the 2022/23 improvement and 2023/24 regression; AGSA 2024/25 report for the latest cycle. Financial years run July to June.
High water loss, aging networks and long outages point to a maintenance system that needs measurable prevention, not only tankers and emergency crews. For 2023/24, the audited accounts recorded 48.66% non-revenue water losses; the city’s 2024/25 mid-year report said real losses were 38.5% at November 2024. Those are different water-loss measures, so they should not be read as a clean trend.
AGSA’s 2024/25 Eastern Cape review says Nelson Mandela Bay had not investigated significant irregular and fruitless-and-wasteful expenditure from prior years. Its reported causes include under-capacitated MPAC, political instability and vacancies in key senior posts. AGSA reports a control failure; that alone does not establish criminal conduct.
The audit review describes prolonged leadership instability and ineffective daily and monthly financial disciplines. MPAC had already asked the municipality to assess automated supply-chain systems, capacitate supply chain management and improve maintenance spending. These are core operating controls, not cosmetic admin.
The city’s 2024/25 mid-year report recorded 1,092 new sewer connections by 31 December 2024 against a 2,000 full-year target, after a contractor recovery plan accelerated work. The 2022/23 audit improvement and high basic-service access also show capacity exists. The next test is whether delivery and controls persist, and whether residents can verify them.
