Makhado Local Municipality is aiming for a clean audit after recording five consecutive unqualified audit opinions, Mayor Dorcus Mboyi said on Friday as she tabled the municipality's fifth and final budget of the current administration's term.
Speaking at the Makhado Showground, Mboyi said the municipality had achieved 100% expenditure of its Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) in each of the past four financial years, incurred no unauthorised or irregular expenditure over the same period, and prepared its 2024/25 financial statements in-house — an achievement that earned the municipality recognition at the SALGA Big Moss Maluleke Awards.
She said the municipality had also been reclassified from a Grade 4 to a Grade 5 municipality during her term, which she attributed to consistent financial discipline and sound administration.
On staffing, Mboyi said 355 permanent appointments had been made across municipal departments over the past four years, including 91 in the 2025/26 financial year alone. A further 29 posts had already been advertised for the 2026/27 financial year.
The municipality had also expanded its skills development initiatives, training 49 out-of-school youth through work-integrated learning programmes and enrolling a further 17 in internships during the 2025/26 financial year, Mboyi said.
On service delivery, she pointed to the rollout of Wi-Fi connectivity at five community facilities, including the Makhado Showground and community halls in Dzanani, Waterval, Musekwa and Ha-Mutsha, as well as the placement of 210 skip bins across the municipality's villages to combat illegal dumping.
In the local economy, Mboyi said the municipality had approved 267 business licences and 456 land use applications during the 2025/26 financial year. It had also sold 843 stands across Dzanani Township, Extension 9 and the area south of Pretorius in Louis Trichardt, generating R206 million in revenue.
She also highlighted the resumption of MC Mining's operations at Mudimeli village, which she said was expected to create more than 700 permanent jobs, along with additional employment in logistics, catering and plant services.
Mboyi said the municipality's disaster management unit, working with the Vhembe District Municipality and the Department of Social Development, had responded to recent flood damage affecting residents, and that R12 million had been set aside in the new budget to rehabilitate flood-damaged culverts and bridges.