The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature continues to trailblaze as an effectively managed institution which abides by the highest governance prescripts.

This was evidenced by the institution again receiving a clean audit outcome from the Auditor-General for the 2021/2022 financial year.

The audit outcome means that, for two successive financial years, the Legislature has continued to prudently manage its resources and in a manner that benefits the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

Commenting on the audit outcomes, KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Speaker, Ms Nontembeko Boyce said the clean audit had been achieved because the institution’s officials had heeded the call for the legislature to lead by example.

“When we began the sixth administration in 2019, we sat with our management and emphasized that it was fundamentally important for them to exercise vigilance to ensure good governance standards were adhered to.

The political leadership did not only make a clarion for management to ensure that it handled the public purse with care and implements legislature programmes effectively, but it also ensured that it worked closely with management to ensure that our vision was implemented to the teeth,” added Boyce.

The Speaker said she was pleased that the legislature managed to execute its mandate of playing oversight over government departments and public education with distinction even during marathon Covid-19 lockdowns.

“When the pandemic struck, the legislature quickly moved towards digital platforms to ensure that the work of the legislature was not disrupted.

We organised the requisite IT infrastructure to ensure that everyone had access to virtual platforms. That meant that all management meetings, committee meetings, house meetings were done online.

We also developed ICT mechanisms which ensured that our public participation mandate was not affected. We did this by making sure that the public was able to participate in our online programmes without paying even a cent,” Boyce said.

She thanked the Office of the Auditor General for its continued support and guidance which made it possible for the legislature to achieve its set targets.

Ms Nerusha Naidoo, the Secretary to the legislature, said the institution continued to excel because the political leadership continuously encouraged management to commit themselves to high standards of integrity and ethical values.

Source: Government of South Africa