The municipality wishes to confirm that 75% of meters has been opened as in this afternoon. Normal water pressure and supply with no restrictions has been restored in all areas of Emfuleni. However it should be noted that there are some pipe bursts due to ageing infrastructure and the communities must report them and the team will deal with them.
However, Eatonside has bit of a challenge as Rand Water must fix their valve. At the moment it is not yet opened, and therefore the community will only start to receive water later this evening, that is, around 6pm as the RW technicians indicated it will take a few hours to repair.
Water has been restored after ELM had further engaged Rand Water this morning, after it failed to restore water last night as expected. Gauteng Premier Makhura and the Executive Mayor Khawe brokered another deal with Rand Water last night, and paid additional R17 million towards servicing the existing debt.
Early December 2017, ELM entered into an agreement with Rand Water intending to reduce the amount of bulk water purchases from +_ R80 million to a maximum of R60 million a month. In terms of the agreement the municipality undertook to the following:
• The amount of R150 671 834.17 had to be paid to Rand water by the 11th December 2017. Due to financial unachieved financial projections a total amount of R147 043 668.00 was paid to them on the 22nd December 2017. The municipality had a shortfall of R3 628 166.00. The matter was communicated to Rand water that the shortfall will be paid with the next instalment
• The next amount of R42 149 261.85 had to be paid by the 5th January 2008. The total amount payable included the shortfall amounted to R45 777 427.85. Again, due to financial capacity an amount of R16 923 564.23 was paid to rand water on the 8th January 2018.
• The current outstanding amount is R28 853 863.62. This excludes the current account which is payable by the 31st January 2018.
Taking all the outstanding figures into consideration, the current account is expected to be in the estimated region of R60 million as agreed with Rand Water when and resolved to restrict Rand water supply points by 20% of volumetric flow within the municipality jurisdiction. This was followed by the technical steering committee meeting sitting. The idea was to test the feasibility of the proposed 20% volumetric restrictions. The agreement and our payment to Rand Water currently is about 82% towards the amount owed.
It is within this context that Emfuleni Local Municipality robustly engage Rand Water to uplift with immediate effect the additional 20% (40%) volumetric restriction implemented by them. The municipality is further calling on the additional technical meeting with Rand Water to discuss and agree through the agreed trial and error process to readjust the volumetric restrictions at the meters.
Again, the municipality continues to encourage and appeals to its communities to pay for all their municipal services accounts so that it is able to provide sustainable, efficient and effective services, which are not affected by cut offs, erratic waste collections, potholes and water shortages as is the case at the moment. The municipality is already overburdened by a debt from residence of Emfuleni in the tune of R5 billion. This has negatively affected the municipality to be financially sustainable and continue to operate smoothly in continuously providing basic services in line with its constitutional mandate. The municipality urges residents to pay or make arrangements to settle all your current and outstanding debt. Contact our customer care hotline on 016 950 5109 and physically visit our customer walk in center at OK Building in President Kruger Street Vanderbijlpark to settle your account or make arrangements or register as an indigent for free services. For those who cannot afford or low income household and unemployed should fill in the indigent forms.
