Emfuleni municipality: Fears that workers won’t be paid and service delivery will completely collapse

The financial problems in the Emfuleni Local Municipality may result in workers struggling to receive their salaries, says the DA in Gauteng.

The Emfuleni Local Municipality has experienced financial problems for years. On Wednesday, Eskom announced it had attached four of the municipality’s bank accounts.

Emfuleni owes the power utility R8 billion for bulk electricity.

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Notorious municipality

According to Eskom, this amount represents around 10% of the R82 billion owed by municipalities and places Emfuleni among the top three municipalities in debt to Eskom.

Nico de Jager, who serves on the provincial committee for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), told The Citizen that the attachments of the bank accounts will affect municipal employees and service delivery.

“The municipality’s inability to access its funds will also jeopardise the payment of salaries to municipal staff, potentially leading to strikes and further deterioration of services,” he said.

Negative impact on residents

De Jager said Eskom’s move will also unfairly punish residents who pay for municipal services.

“This action by Eskom will undoubtedly lead to a complete collapse of service delivery in Emfuleni.

“Residents who have diligently paid their bills will now find themselves without essential services, through no fault of their own,” he said.

Efforts to save struggling Emfuleni

The Emfuleni municipality is now embarking on a rate collection blitz to recover money owed to it by residents.

But de Jager blamed poor administration for the position the municipality has found itself in.

“Despite the provincial Cogta department taking over the administration of Emfuleni in 2018, there has been little to no improvement in the municipality’s financial management and service delivery,” he said.

ALSO READ:Eskom attaches Emfuleni assets over R8b debt | Vaalweekblad

Hands off Midvaal

The Gauteng provincial government years ago announced plans to merge the Midvaal municipality with Emfuleni.

According to De Jager this is a bad idea because of the state Emfuleni finds itself in. Currently Midvaal is one of the best run municipalities in the province and has won numerous awards for good administration.

“Adding insult to injury, Cogta’s ill-conceived plan to incorporate the well-run Midvaal municipality into the dysfunctional Emfuleni municipality threatens to destroy the last bastion of hope and good governance in the area. This move will inevitably drag down service delivery standards in Midvaal and erode the progress made there,” he said.

Emfuleni is also experiencing an environmental crisis with raw sewage spilling into the Vaal River.

“The current crisis in Emfuleni is compounded by the ongoing environmental disaster, with raw sewage flowing directly into the Vaal River due to collapsed infrastructure. The failure to pay Rand Water further exacerbates the water crisis in the region,” De Jager said.

Call for accountability

DA Emfuleni constituency head Kingsol Chabalala said the Gauteng government has failed the residents and businesses of Emfuleni.

“The Gauteng provincial government must shoulder the blame. They have failed the people of Emfuleni. They deployed people to turn the municipality around but now things are worse,” he said.

The Citizen has reached out to the Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi for comment, but his spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said he was not available.

Lesufi has spoken out against government entities taking a hard stance on municipalities.