Barkly East, 31 July 2025 – The Joe Gqabi District Municipality (JGDM) has credited its good governance to internal systems and controls the institution has established over time.
The municipality made this distinction in response to an article published by an online publication, BusinessTech, on Friday, 26 July 2025 titled “This is the best-run municipality in the Eastern Cape”. The article highlights that Joe Gqabi District Municipality is the only municipality in the Eastern Cape to receive a clean audit outcome for four (4) or more consecutive years, with the City of Cape Town being the only other municipality to have achieved this standard.
“Such recognition is humbling to us as an institution, particularly coming from members of the Fourth Estate who play a significant role in holding government accountable to ensure transparency in how public funds are spent,” said the Municipal Manager of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, Mcebisi Nonjola.
Nonjola explained that clearly defined roles of all internal stakeholders has enabled synergy within the institution and given effect to new public administration principles of effective, efficient and economic use of resources. He credited the Joe Gqabi Municipal Council for diligently performing its fiduciary oversight function, ensuring accountability and transparency. He underscored that there is a clear separation between political leadership and administration, with both parties respecting, understanding, and valuing each other’s roles and mandates.
“We have endeavoured to keep staff turnover minimal, thus ensuring continuity and institutional memory. It is our ongoing concerted effort to build internal capacity and thus limit external consultants to highly specialised tasks. Furthermore, institutional knowledge, a history of decision-making, and capacity built over time are all critical contributors to our efficiency,” said Nonjola.
Nonjola said that sound financial management principles and effective internal controls are the cornerstone of the municipality’s strategic direction. We have a strong systems-based approach to management, with checks and balances in our approval systems. We ensure regular monitoring and reporting functions to ascertain compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
He emphasised that the municipality is cognisant of the work that lies ahead to ensure that service delivery performance is optimal and to deliver maximal value to all the communities of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality.
Clean audit outcome
The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA’s) report for the year ended 30 June 2024 found that, in all material respects, the financial position of the municipality and its financial performance and cash flows for the year ended in accordance with the Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP) and the requirements of the Municipal Financial Management Act 56 of 2003 (MFMA) and the Division of Revenue Act 5 of 2023 (Dora).
Joe Gqabi District Municipality is one of six municipalities in the province to receive a clean audit, with 85% of the province’s municipalities receiving material findings for the 2023/24 financial year. Forty-one (41) of the country’s 257 municipalities received clean audits.
“Our constitutional mandate is to ensure that services are provided to communities in a sustainable manner. The onus is therefore upon us as political office bearers to conduct the necessary oversight to ensure that our administration is on top of things to fulfil this mandate. It then gives us great pride that we have done remarkably on clean governance, whilst acknowledging that we need to intensify our efforts to realise a better quality of life for all our communities,” said Councillor Nomvuyo Mposelwa, Executive Mayor of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality.
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MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Buli Mgojo
Manager: Communications, Marketing, Public Relations and Customer Care
E: mgojon@jgdm.gov.za
T: (045) 9793000
C: 078 007 5787
