Emfuleni owes R121 million in late payments

VANDERBIJLPARK. – Emfuleni is now officially Gauteng’s worst performer for paying service providers. This is according to Mr Kingsol Chabalala MPL DA Gauteng Constituency Head in Emfuleni North.
“Job creation and local economic development in Emfuleni are at a severe disadvantage. A written reply to DA questions revealed that the municipality now owes R121 million in late payments to service providers,” says Chabalala.
Payments outstanding for longer than 30 days stand at R11,4 million and at R7,7 million for longer than 60 days.
According to Chabalala the reasons provided by Emfuleni for the delays in payments were “cash constraints and low revenue collection.”
“Municipal finance legislation requires municipal managers to ensure that all money owed by the municipality be paid within 30 days of receiving the relevant invoice or statement – hopefully new Mayor Mahole Mofokeng will ensure that this happens.
“Late payments hamper the delivery of critical services to residents of Emfuleni. In most cases these service providers are small to medium businesses that create many jobs for local residents. If a municipality can’t pay its bills on time, it certainly cannot deliver good quality services to its residents. We remain cautiously optimistic that the new mayor will clean up the mess created by his predecessor,” says Chabalala.
The DA has pledged to monitor the payments of service providers through submitting a series of questions to ensure all bills are paid on time and services are effectively delivered.