This publication Value-Added Tax (VAT) Audit: Summary of Considerations and Activities by the African Tax Administrator’s Forum (ATAF) Tax Programmes Department observes that proper planning and execution of VAT audits are likely to increase VAT revenue collections. ATAF defines a VAT audit as “a planned and documented activityperformed by tax officials to determine through in-depth review and examination:a. the adequacy […]
In an article published in IMIESA on 25 November 2021, Maswine (2021) asserts that lessons learnt 3 pilot sites of the District Development Model could contribute to the success of the model. Maswine contends that the DDM is attempting to overcome challenges emanating from two structural features of the South Africa constitution: its objective of citizen participation in local government […]
National government was, for the first time in 12 April 2021, directed by the Northern Gauteng High Court to intervene in the financial affairs of a municipality. According to the Sowetan newspaper, the residents of Lekwa Local Municipality had to contend with regular sewage spills in the streets, uncollected refuse leading to rubbish strewn everywhere, water cuts and electricity cuts […]
This is the title of a chapter I wrote for the recently published Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy. This is a very comprehensive publication with 47 chapters covering a wide variety of topics relating to the political economy, the primary sectors, energy, the environment, trade industry, regulation, the labour market, distribution, social policy, and the macroeconomy. In the […]
After the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement 2021 (MTBPS – or “mini-budget” as it is more colloquially known) tabled on 11 November 2021, two insighful commentaries. The first by Michael Sachs (former head of the Budget Office in the National Treasury of South Africa) contends, inter alia, that the sharp fiscal contraction of more than 10% per annum in real […]
I was part of a team from the School for Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University that – in partnership with the Hanns Seidel Foundation – conducted a research study on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on municipal fiscal sustainability in the Western Cape (WC) province. The study was completed in April 2021 and covered the first 9 months of […]
This report, released in November 2021 by the Dullah Omar Institute and International Budget Project, surveyed transparency in procurement in 49 South African municipalities. The key findings of the report include: A comparison of the 2020 and 2021 survey results shows that the lack of transparency in municipal procurement has not improved. In fact, it has worsened in some respects. […]