ELM apologises to staff and families for late salary payment

SEDIBENG. – While salaries started dropping into the bank accounts of the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) employees from late Monday, three days after the supposed payment day, the municipality apologised to its employees and their families for the delay and inconvenience.

The delay which was caused by the attachment of the ELM’s bank accounts by Rand Water and Eskom has been going on since December last year. The ELM said that acknowledged that it is currently going through tough times. Makhosonke Sangweni, ELM Manager for Communications, Marketing, Branding, and Event Management said:

“Our financial situation is well known but must remain steadfast and never lose sight and faith that tomorrow will be better than today especially if all Vaal stakeholders in particular residences and businesses can work together. We all have a positive role to play in rescuing Emfuleni from this unfortunate situation we find ourselves in, this is no time to be pointing fingers but brings our heads together to find a long-lasting or rather permanent situation.”

Sangweni further dispelled the rumours that have been making the rounds on media platforms about alleged R11 million payments made to lawyers and an unknown R200 million from the ELM Absa account.

“These kinds of negative rumours are undesirable and do not help the negative perceptions embers of the public already have about our ailing municipality. People must ignore and isolate perpetrators who seek to divide the municipality from its community while projecting it as an uncaring group of individuals who are not affected by this painful situation. We continue to look forward to collaborating with Eskom, Rand Water, and all our creditors in finding solutions that serve the interests of our communities while maintaining a positive and cordial relationship.”

In the end, Sangweni called on all stakeholders (members of Staff, business people, and entities in the area, and communities) who are beneficiaries of any of our services to play their civic role by paying for basic services.

“Accordingly, we take this opportunity to condemn the aggressive behaviour displayed by some employees as this often leads to distraction of already strained public infrastructure. We have zero tolerance for this unbecoming behaviour and strongly hope it never happens again. Once more, we are regretful for the delay, we ask our respected employees to immediately report to duty and we expect optimal performance.”