Patrick Kulati and Justice Raymond Zondo at SAIGA's fourth annual conference
|
|
|
South Africa landed back on earth with a thump last month following the establishment of the GNU, thanks to the
Auditor-General’s report revealing that our municipalities lost R7.4 billion to fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the 2022/2023 financial year, up from R4.9 billion in 2021/2022.
Yet alarming as they are, good governance is not only about the figures. Finances must be run cleanly and efficiently, but government entities also need to be responsive to their stakeholders’ mandate, particularly in service delivery. I explore
this subject further in my article, here, remembering too that GGA’s Governance Performance Index – released in March – maps each municipality’s performance in all areas outside of their respective
audits, including service delivery, leadership, planning, and administration.
But getting back to the importance of auditing, GGA was the proud partner of the Southern African Institute of Government Auditors’ (SAIGA) fourth annual conference,
where auditors do some important knowledge sharing on how to improve their systems. At this conference, former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo came out of retirement to address delegates, and expressed his concern over continuing corruption in
South Africa that, far from shrinking following his damning report two years ago, has got worse.
Justice Zondo’s comments underscores GGA’s position; that while auditors play a crucial role in preventing corruption, they can only go so far. He looked to the role that South African society plays in enabling corruption, pointing out that
"some in society embrace these (corrupt) individuals as heroes”, which in turn encouraged them.
GGA CEO (SARO) Patrick Kulati shared his own observations about how corruption takes root, and how to steer the country
back on track. “You need the support of governors beyond auditors, to create a balance between lead measures (ethical governance by political leaders) and lag measures (audits), and to use lag measure outcomes to improve lead measures,” said
Kulati.
In the same week, Patrick attended an event hosted by the US Embassy in Tshwane, helping to strengthen GGA’s relationship with the ambassador and US diplomats. “This
is a valuable relationship for GGA, because aside from America’s upcoming election, the US has a great deal to teach about the workings of democracy, and GGA is always
willing to learn from other countries’ experiences,” said he said.
 |
|
Simultaneously, Chrissy Dube, GGA’s head of Governance Insights and Analytics, and data analyst Stuart Morrison, proudly represented GGA at the 2024 Data for Governance Alliance Stakeholders Convening in Cape Town, where they shared GGA’s
data-driven knowledge with civil society stakeholders who are equally committed to advancing governance, democracy, and human rights throughout Africa.
One of our products in this vein is the Election Tracker, which is currently tracking the Mozambique election scheduled for 9 October. We have a great
infographic, by Mischka Moosa, mapping the political history of Mozambique, which you can look at here.
Looking forward, we are keenly preparing for our always well-attended Girl Child Dialogues, to be held on 11 October. See the below advert and click the
registration link to attend online. To provide a data-rich overview of the challenges Africa’s girl children face in 2024, GGA’s Helen Grange and Sikhululekile Mashingaidze wrote this article in the Mail & Guardian this week.
Last but not least, and speaking of history, GGA celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. To celebrate, we are hosting an unmissable webinar reflecting on our journey and looking at how to renew our collective resolve to build a brighter future
for Africa. Among the guests I will be moderating is Justice Richard Goldstone as well Ambassador Salah Siddig Hammad, head of the African Governance Peace and Security Architectures’ AGA-APSA Secretariat at the AU Commission. Please click here to sign up for this webinar, or click on the QR code in the advert below.
Also, keep an eye out for our special 10th anniversary edition of Africa in Fact, featuring a pick of the best articles we’ve run over the years, to be published on 2 October in tandem with our 10th
anniversary celebrations.
Dr Ross Harvey
Director of Research and Programmes
|
|
Mozambique will host their 7th multi-party presidential and legislative elections and 4th provincial elections on 9 October 2024...
|
|
Clean audits are a necessary but insufficient condition for achieving governance performance. But there is more to the story than that. It is...
|
|
A July TED talk by Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, had already reached 648 293 views at the time of writing. It is
not a good-news talk. Essentially, the...
|
|
Governance and politics often go hand in hand in a delicate balancing act. Governance in its most basic form is about the allocation of resources; it’s the
process of deciding who gets what, when and...
|
|
|
|
