Under-administration Emfuleni municipality still ‘experiencing challenges’, says Maile

The Emfuleni Local Municipality remains dysfunctional despite it being put under administration, Gauteng cooperative governance MEC Lebogang Maile said on Monday.

The municipality remains in debt of R4.6 billion, meaning that the administration team led by Arbeto Martins failed to “produce the desired outcomes and the municipality continues to experience challenges”, said Maile.

The wheels of the the municipality all but come off back in 2018. At the heart of the problem is a massive “financial viability and sustainability, the issue of historical debt to large creditors such as Eskom and Rand Water”, said Maile.

Maile said that the biggest creditors were Eskom, which it owed R3.2 billion at the end of January followed by the R1.3 billion it owes Rand Water.

He said the administrators had since met with Rand Water and agreed to pay the outstanding amount owed.

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“We basically have three creditors above the R30 million mark, totalling roughly R4.5 billion.”

Payment arrangements had been made with some of the larger creditors, Maile said.

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