MEC Sipho Hlomuka says the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department will continue implementing Auditor-General recommendations while ensuring public funds deliver benefits to learners, educators and communities.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education has received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General for the 2025/26 financial year, with Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka saying the outcome reflects improvements in governance, financial management and internal controls.
Hlomuka received the audit outcomes report from the Office of the Auditor-General, which found that the department had made progress in strengthening compliance, oversight processes and the management of public resources.
The positive audit outcome comes as the department has faced scrutiny over financial challenges, including concerns around its ability to pay norms and standards allocations to schools.
The department’s Head of Department, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, previously informed the Education Portfolio Committee that he had been summoned by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) over complaints against the department, including delays in paying norms and standards funding owed to schools and concerns around scholar transport and textbooks.
