Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has welcomed the Auditor General’s finding that the province had the best municipal audits record in South Africa.

Spokesperson for the Premier Michael Mpofu said clean audits in the province had risen from zero municipalities in 2009 to 80% in the latest reporting period, the next closest being KwaZulu-Natal, with 18%.

Zille said the audit outcomes are the result of a team effort to entrench good governance throughout the province.

“Since 2009 we have been building the capable state, and since 2006 in the City of Cape Town. Our thanks go to Mayors, Councillors and officials for their hard work,” she said.

Mpofu said progress had been made in troubled municipalities where provincial, district and local officials had been working closely together.

“Oudtshoorn, Central Karoo and Bergriver all showed improvements in audit outcomes,” he said.

Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said the inherited legacy in many municipalities had presented challenges.

“Over the past years, we’ve worked tirelessly to instill a zero-tolerance approach toward those who transgress the financial laws governing this province. We’ve also invested in training initiatives to upskill municipal staff.”

“There are always areas where improvements are needed, but we believe our municipalities provide their communities with the best services possible within the budgets they receive,” said Bredell.

Mpofu added that the 2015/16 Municipal outcomes followed on from the full set of financial clean audits attained by Western Cape Government departments in the same financial year.