VANDERBIJPARK – Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) says it has reached an agreement with Eskom over electricity distribution over its R8b debt.
This comes after the power utility seized all four of ELM’s accounts in a desperate bid to recover billions owed by the embattled municipality.
On Wednesday (October 2), the municipality issued a communique announcing the new developments.
In a statement, municipal spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni said their financial stand-off was resolved on Wednesday after the intervention by different ministers.
“We take the opportunity to appreciate the intervention and collective work carried out by the Minister of Electricity and Energy, Minister of Finance, Minister of COGTA and the honourable Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, in leading the negotiations that resulted in the resolution of the impasse. In the same breath, the municipality appreciates our trusted negotiation team led by the Municipal Manager April Ntuli for their outstanding work,” he said.
The municipality has since apologised to residents for the impact on service provisions following the attachment of their accounts.
“we would like to seize the opportunity to sincerely apologise to all residents for the inconvenience caused by the bank account attachment situation that affected the provision of services over the past few days,” he said.
While trying to reach the agreement with Eskom, the municipality was unable to pay their employees, which led to hundreds disgruntled workers taking to the streets earlier this week.
Fuming with rage, employees scattered rubbish throughout the civic centre, burnt tyres and barricaded the head offices with rocks and debris.
Touching on the worker’s pain, Sangweni said: “The municipality equally wants to apologise to all employees for the anguish and inconvenience caused by the dispute between ELM and the power utility.”
