Court judgment expected on ELM salaries
Eskom earlier attached ELM’s bank accounts on electricity debt cited at R8 billion, despite ELM already being on the National Treasury’s Municipal Debt Relief Programme since mid-2023.
Uncertainty is gripping thousands of Emfuleni municipal employees and Councillors as a High Court judgment is awaited this week on lifting Eskom’s ambush attachments on the municipality’s bank accounts and their salaries.
Judgment in the case is expected either today or Wednesday, according to the court, leading to a nail-biting weekend and week for municipal workers, managers and Councillors.
The Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) brought an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court last week to remove the attachments on four bank accounts which not only threaten the payment of monthly salaries on time for the 25th, but also affect service delivery.
According to debt relief rules, ELM is immune to legal action on the basis of its debt to Eskom whilst on the programme and National Treasury last week again confirmed for a second time that the local authority is still a beneficiary.
Eskom and ELM were engaged in a separate court-ordered negotiation process to arrive at an agency agreement whereby the bulk utility would manage electricity infrastructure and revenue for the municipality and pay its fair share over.
This process was the result of separate court action by the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) in 2023 and also opened the door to all ELM account holders to pay Eskom direct for electricity. But negotiations have deadlocked.
However, a parallel investigation by Vaalweekblad into the National Treasury debt relief programme has revealed that, in an apparent conflict of interest, the fired former ELM CFO Andile Dyakala works at Treasury dealing with the municipal debt programme.
Dyakala is not employed directly by Treasury but by another company which has won a tender with Treasury to assist with the financial management of the Municipal Debt Relief programme.
The National Treasury has formally confirmed in writing to Vaalweekblad that Dykala is working a contract with its municipal debt relief programme, working for a company called EKSS, which nominated him for this work.
Treasury has however not yet responded to Vaalweekblad questions highlighting the objectivity of utilising Dyakala in a sensitive position where he can unduly influence matters against his former employer ELM, which fired him after a bitter and lengthy disciplinary and legal process.
