Court halts Emfuleni municipality bank account seizures

The Johannesburg High Court this week granted the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) an interdict to stop attachment and seizure of its various bank accounts by its former smart meter service provider BXCSA.

However, the stay of execution in the ongoing legal drama and saga between the embattled municipality and BXCSA does not affect the validity of the original record R492 million default judgment granted against ELM earlier this year.

ELM said after Monday’s judgment the court had ordered BXCSA to return all monies seized from its bank accounts. A BXCSA spokesperson was not available for comment at time of publication.

It was also not known if the seized funds – believed to run into hundreds of millions of rands – had in fact already been transferred back to ELM.

READ MORE: Emfuleni dysfunctional with little ‘evidence of improvement’

BXCSA and ELM are set for another court battle in March next year on the validity of the default judgment, according to ELM.

In late November, BXCSA attached and seized an ELM FNB bank account after the original default judgment and after it had earlier also attached the official ELM Absa account following the September 18 default judgment.

But the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) slammed ELM mismanagement and incompetence under former acting Municipal Manager Oupa Nkoane and present CFO Andile Dyakala that now forces the municipality to spend huge sums in legal fees.

GTCoC CEO Klippies Kritzinger said ELM was now spending money needed for critical service delivery functions on managing the incompetence of a previous administration which had still not been held accountable for its incompetence and mismanagement.

“We have ongoing and severe service delivery crises in Emfuleni right now – especially in Vereeniging with power blackouts – but the municipality must spend money needed for critical functions fighting court battles,” said Kritzinger.

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In response to the High Court judgment ELM issued a media statement on Tuesday: “BXC South Africa had been awarded a default judgement on 18 September 2020 which subsequently led to the attachment of municipal bank accounts.

“Delivering the judgement, Judge HM Barnardt said he held a view that the municipality was not in willful default of entering an appearance to defend proceedings by BXC South Africa.

“The municipality argued that the summons was not properly served, rendering subsequent proceedings null and void.

“A hearing for the municipality’s application to review and set aside the conclusion of the PPP contract will be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on 11 March 2021,” said the statement.

This article first appeared on Sedibeng Star and was republished with permission.

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