Councillors threaten to destabilise Emfuleni unless service delivery improves

Ward councillors from various areas in the embattled Emfuleni Local Municipality say they have had enough with the poor state of service delivery.

Ward councillors form a critical part of local government by ensuring the interests of residents living in their wards are taken care of.

A group of ward councillors from areas falling under the troubled local municipality – such as Sebokeng and Evaton – staged a protest in Emfuleni this week. They demanded better services to their communities.

Some of the service delivery issues that have been raised include high mast lights that are not working, potholes, sewerage and the non-removal of refuse.

Emfuleni accused of poor service delivery

Speaking to The Citizen, one of the ward councillors Sefatsa Sefatsa accused the municipality of not taking its residents seriously.

“It is for this reason that we decided to go and close the entrance of the municipality because officials there don’t really take our service delivery concerns seriously and residents have really had enough with poor service delivery.

“We did have a meeting with the Chief Whip and the Speaker of Council and we told them not to send back any unspent millions of rands to Treasury and to rather use that money to sort out our service delivery issues,” said Sefatsa.

He said they are expecting to hear back from the municipality within a week on how it intends addressing all outstanding service delivery issues.

Threats to make Emfuleni ungovernable

Another ward councillor, who did not want to be named, echoed Sefatsa’s sentiments, saying they are expecting nothing less than a detailed plan on how the municipality will implement all unfinished service delivery projects when they meet in a week’s time.

“During our meeting with officials from the municipality this week, we tabled what we feel need to be implemented as a matter of urgency, such as the resurfacing of our roads, the re-advertising of tenders and we also mandated Emfuleni to ensure that all vehicles need to be taken in for service.

“We also told the officials about the waste management issue in Palm Springs and all we are expecting in a week from now is a solid plan from the municipality.”

The distraught-sounding ward councillor said it is worrying that the municipality is only now committing to attend to residents’ concerns.

He warned that failure to accede to the residents’ demands will leave them with no option but to intensify their protest action.

“We won’t stop with our protest action until something is done to address residents’ service delivery concerns and we are prepared to organise even bigger protests which will destabilise Emfuleni.

“There are residents in Palm Springs and Evaton West who have been experiencing water shortages for more than a month now and this is just unacceptable.”

Threat to not pay for municipal services

In recent months, a local organisation called the Vereeniging Business Corporation (VBC) threatened to boycott paying for municipal services, citing poor service delivery.

ALSO READ: Emfuleni blames poor service delivery on dire financial situation

Emfuleni is currently governed through a coalition arrangement led by the African National Congress (ANC).

This after the 2021 local government elections could not produce an outright majority, which led to the coalition government consisting of the ANC, New Horizon Movement (NHM) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), among others.

ALSO READ: ANC loses full control in nine Gauteng municipalities

Coalition partner admits government has failed

Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of one of the coalition partners, spokesperson for the NHM Mpho Khang said the situation in Emfuleni has gone from bad to worse in just over a year since the coalition government took over.

“A reconfiguration of the local government in Emfuleni is needed as a matter of urgency and it is for this reason that we have called for a motion of no confidence in Mayor Sipho Radebe.

“We as coalition partners have really tried everything in our power to address the issues of service delivery in Emfuleni and unless there is change in the administration of the municipality, things will just get worse by the day,” Khang said.

Khang spoke at length to The Citizen’s senior digital reporter Stephen Tau this week about whether or not the coalition government has yielded any positive results.

Visit www.citizen.co.za on Friday to access the podcast with Khang.

The motion of no confidence against the mayor took place on Thursday morning.

Emfuleni spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni did not share much details except confirming that the meeting did take place.