What do municipal audit opinions mean?
Understand clean, unqualified, qualified, adverse and disclaimed municipal audit outcomes, and what an audit cannot tell you.
Read the guide →Understand the evidence
Better questions start with context.
Practical guides to reading South African municipal financial, audit and service records. Each guide distinguishes source evidence from our interpretation.
Municipal budgets vs actual spending: what is the difference?
Distinguish municipal budgets, adjusted budgets and actual spending before interpreting South African municipal financial records.
Read the guide →How is municipal Financial resilience calculated?
See what Pothole Portal’s experimental Financial resilience indicator measures, its three inputs and its limitations.
Read the guide →What do municipal service and free basic service figures mean?
Understand Stats SA municipal provision, consumer units and free basic services without confusing them with household access or reliability.
Read the guide →How to compare municipalities fairly over time
Compare South African municipalities using equivalent reporting years, responsibilities, coverage and source definitions.
Read the guide →How to find your municipality and report a pothole
Find your municipality’s public financial evidence and locate official contact channels for pothole or service complaints.
Read the guide →Check the evidence behind an answer
Our guides explain how to use the portal; they do not replace the original audit, budget or statistical publication. For exact observations, reporting periods and source links, open a municipality profile. Read our methodology and editorial and corrections approach.