ELM on brink of total chaos before special council meeting

By Craig Kotze
With captured ELM on the verge of total collapse – driven by key service providers desperately seeking payment by withholding core services and supplies – business has appealed to councillors not to protect incompetent and negligent top management at an emergency session on Friday.
Councillors must act and vote in the interests of the people of Emfuleni and not protect an incompetent former Municipal Manager and now supposedly Administrator – and his willing cohorts – from being disciplined for gross mismanagement and dereliction of duty.
ELM corruption and incompetence – especially that of senior management – are atrocities against the people and businesses of Emfuleni and if they are not countered there is a real danger of both civil disobedience and a complete change in the political landscape in the next local government elections.
This is the view of Klippies Kritzinger, CEO of the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC), as ELM councillors were scheduled to meet in a special sitting on Friday – a meeting already twice delayed by Speaker Maipato Tsokolibane at the last moment.
“Emfuleni and ELM are sitting on a ticking time-bomb – and it is a ticking time bomb created and placed there by its own former Municipal Manager Dithaba Oupa Nkoane, who has not only mismanaged the entire institution, but destroyed whole revenue centres such as smart meters and created massive extra costs.
“If there is no accountability imposed by ELM Council then residents, businesses and even ELM employees will lose all patience with a discredited and captured municipal management system,” said Kritzinger.
Confusion reigned this week as to whether Nkoane – whose contract as acting Municipal Manager ended on September 30 – was still formally employed in any capacity at ELM. An ELM spokesperson confirmed to Mooivaal Media in writing this week that Nkoane was now the acting Administrator but Nkoane himself has seemingly deliberately added to the confusion.
However, ELM issued no general statement on Nkoane’s status despite the importance of clarity on the matter for any action to emanate from Friday’s expected council meeting.
Nkoane this week contributed to the confusion and failed to clarify his formal status on a WhatsApp group, saying he was an “activist who cares about the people of Emfuleni” when asked to clarify his formal status as either Municipal Manager or Administrator. His post was still clearly marked as MM Oupa Nkoane as late as Thursday this week.
Kritzinger said it was “laughable” that Nkoane had placed “pure misinformation and disinformation” on ELM’s Facebook page praising himself for good financial management and ending allegedly irregular contracts to save ELM money.
“It seems every single important contract at ELM is deliberately kept and viewed as irregular till Nkoane decides its time to pressure business through non-payment for reasons we will not speculate on now but are well-known to everybody.
“How did the contracts get to be there in the first place – did Nkoane and his predecessors force service providers to be there and render services and build infrastructure for years at gunpoint? Will ELM now return all the millions they have made from smart meters, for example?
“But the crucial issue is Nkoane’s mismanagement and negligence – what did he put in place to prevent the total chaos this week and many times before – he and his collaborators at ELM management have created scorched earth within ELM and all of Emfuleni by failing to plan adequately and pro-actively.
“Can Emfuleni forget the chaos caused to revenue collection by Nkoane’s incompetence in managing the OK Revenue Building evacuation crisis and scandal where he displayed total lack of concern for ELM employee Health and Safety,” said Kritzinger.
The planned council meeting – if not cancelled again – takes place after a week of unprecedented chaos at ELM with diesel shortages and the permanent shutdown in core electronic administrative capacity and meter reading capacity only averted by last-minute crisis talks with service providers.
Nkoane is resented especially by ELM employees due to his alleged arrogance and contempt for them as a temporary outsider imposed by the Provincial Government and who does not reside permanently in Emfuleni, said several employees who contacted Mooivaal Media.
“Nkoane is almost never at work anyway and no-one seems to know where he is most of the time. Maybe he is secretly managing Ekhuruleni Metro because he always seems to be there during working hours,” said one employee familiar with Nkoane’s movements.