The decision was reached between BXCSA and ELM on Monday to unfreeze the FNB account but neither party was prepared to publicly reveal the terms of the latest agreement. 
It is understood that close on R400 million in various ELM accounts has so far been attached in various legal actions but is in trust and not available for use by either the municipality or BXCSA. First National Bank had by publication also not responded to a media inquiry into the matter sent to them by Sedibeng Ster on Friday last week. Since the R499 million default judgment late last year a number of legal actions and counter-actions have taken place between ELM and BXCSA over attachments and accounts .
The default judgment was granted after ELM suddenly terminated its contract with BXCSA in mid-2019 without a back-up plan, leading to financial losses for the embattled municipality now approaching an estimated R300 million, according to independent experts. Mismanagement by ELM of both the BXCSA smart meter programme – regarded as one of the best in the country and a money-spinner for the municipality – has also resulted in the Gauteng Provincial Government announcing a review of the entire ELM metering system.
Since the end of the BXCSA programme, the ELM meter replacement process has fallen into a shambles with huge losses in revenue generation. The Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) has slammed the decision to end the BXCSA programme and also that no viable alternative in terms of revenue generation was put in place afterwards. “It is yet another example of how ELM has been grossly mismanaged by patronage networks and corrupt senior politicians and officials who spend millions in court defending their own mismanagement with ratepayers money,” said GTCoC CEO Klippies Kritzinger.
