Sometimes certain things in our municipalities have to get worse before there is hope of turning bad management around. Yesterday, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu, flanked by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan, revealed the true state of our municipalities and the runaway costs of unauthorised expenditure.Makwetu said audit outcomes for the current period, compared with the audit outcomes for 2007-2008 - when the government introduced operation clean audit - have improved.But 36% of municipalities received disclaimers , meaning the auditor-general was unable to express an opinion on the financial statements due to the unavailability of information to substantiate transactions.And what is even more shocking is that unauthorised expenditure increased to R11-billion in the 2013-2014 financial year compared with R8.5-billion the previous year.This tells us money is still disappearing in the system and that things are getting worse.If we are to improve the lives of our people and kick-start projects that will help create employment, the billions of rands that are lost without explanation will have to be recovered. Those found to have milked the system should not only be fired but must be made to pay back the money.It is crucial that all our municipalities are properly managed.We agree with former ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who once said sometimes things have to get worse before they start improving.But South Africa has reached the stage at which we neither have the time nor the patience to allow our municipalities to mismanage our resources. Gordhan must crack the whip and his comrades in the ANC must send a clear message that non-performers have no place in government, no matter how politically connected they might be...