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Municipal Finance Management

This short course is designed to equip senior staff in local government with practical and professional skills to promote efficient, accountable, equitable, and sustainable management of South Africa's public finances. This course is an indispensable resource for advancing your knowledge and skills at Africa’s leading School of Governance.

Target audience:

The short course is designed for local government employees with financial and supply-chain responsibilities, including accounting officers, Chief Financial Officers, senior managers reporting to accounting officers, financial officers at middle management level and heads of supply chain management.

Course outcomes

On completing all course requirements, you should be able to:

  1. Apply a comprehensive knowledge of government policy framework regarding service delivery
  2. Implement financial controls and manage risk within the local government context as well as manage all aspects of the municipal budgeting system, including implementation
  3. Describe the responsibilities expected of municipal officials in positions of authority, particularly with respect to decisions that have financial implications
  4. Manage stakeholder relations effectively
  5. Explain the strategic planning process and align implementation policy and performance management procedure with overall local and national government strategy
  6. Apply the key principles of supply chain management (SCM) and link the import SCM regulations to the delivery of municipal services
  7. Prepare regular reports on financial position, financial performance and cash flow statements
  8. Manage a municipality's assets and liabilities through an application of internal controls required to manage fraud that may arise in receipt and use of municipal assets
  9. Explain the importance of having IT controls, risk-based plan and a rescue plan
  10. Apply the principles of project management to run successful project within a specific time and budget

Status of certificate

  • As per the Council for Higher Education (CHE), a short course that does not carry credit towards a qualification on the HEQSF cannot be assigned & allocated NQF levels and credits.

  • Short courses are short learning programmes offered by higher education institutions outside their formal structured undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and they, therefore, do not lead to qualifications on the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF). They serve a range of social and educational purposes, including improving or refreshing participants’ knowledge and skills in a particular field, improving participants’ readiness for specific formal higher education programmes, continuing professional development, learning to use technology, personal fulfilment, social development and good citizenship, to mention a few. (https://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/CHE%20Good%20Practice%20Guide%20September%202016%20PDF.pdf)

  • You will receive a Certificate of Competence on successful completion of this course.

Course content

Module one: Group Dynamics

Module two: Municipal Legislative Environment and Policy

Module three: Municipal Strategic Planning, Implementation and Supply Chain Management

Module four: Municipal Budgeting, Implementation and Supply Chain Management

Module five: Municipal Risk in a Municipal Context

Module six: Corporate Governance and Stakeholder Relations

Module seven: Municipal Financial Reporting

Module eight: Management of Municipal Assets and Liabilities

Module nine:. Project Management and IT

Assessment methods:

Class Test: 25%
Syndicate presentation: 25%
Written examination: 50%

Admission requirement
  • NQF level 5 or equivalent and employment at a professional level within a municipality.
Course duration and dates

Please take note of the start dates for the different provinces:

KwaZulu-Natal : 26 August 2024

Northern Cape: 9 September 2024

Mthatha: 30 September 2024

Johannesburg: 14 October 2024

Free State: 21 October 2024

The eight modules will be delivered over eight months in block release format.

You will be required to attend class for three days a week, once a month, over a period of eights months.

DELIVERY SITE

  • ONSITE course delivery is at the Wits School of Governance located in Parktown, Johannesburg.
  • OFFSITE deliveries are offered subject to the commitment of a minimum numbers of participants being registered for the course.
  • ONLINE delivery will require the participant to have connectivity and devices.
  • Please note that travel and accommodation will be at the cost of the students’ respective organisations. 

Disclaimer: Cancellation of programmes by WSG

WSG is entitled to cancel or change the date of delivery of a programme without notice and for any reason without incurring any liability to individuals who have applied or are enrolled on the programme or any funders of such individuals (“participants” or “funders of participants”).

Without derogating from the aforesaid, and insofar as it possible, WSG will provide the participants or funders of the participants with 30 (thirty days) days written notice of any cancellation or changes in the dates of delivery of the programme.

Insofar as the programme is cancelled or rescheduled prior to delivery of the programme then in that event the participants and funders of the participants will not be charged the full programme fees.