Johannesburg - Employees and councillors of Emfuleni Local Municipality have not been paid their May salaries because Eskom and Rand Water have attached the municipality’s bank account.
The bank account of cash-strapped Emfuleni was attached due to its failure to pay the debt owed to Rand Water and Eskom. The municipality has also failed to ensure that their accounts are up to date.
The salaries were supposed to be paid on Thursday, May 25. However, there is still no communication on when they will be paid.
"Employees and councillors are now facing severe consequences as a result of financial mismanagement, maladministration, and corruption that have brought this municipality to its knees," the DA’s Kingsol Chabalala said.
Chabalala said that instead of spending money wisely to ensure that it could pay salaries and deliver services to its residents, Emfuleni continued to outsource services that could be done in-house.
According to Chabalala, these outsourced services include grave digging, grass cutting, refuse removal, fixing water leaks, and filling potholes.
"Failure to pay salaries on time will affect not only the employees and their families, but the whole of Emfuleni. The current situation might lead to employees downing tools, and service delivery will suffer," he said.
Chabalala said the DA demanded that the Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Mzi Khumalo, intervene urgently to ensure that salaries were paid to prevent service delivery from being interrupted.
"The residents of Emfuleni have suffered enough under this government. It is high time that a permanent solution is found to resolve Emfuleni’s financial crisis," he said.
Chabalala said the DA would continue to pressure both MEC Khumalo and Premier Panyaza Lesufi to rescue the municipality and make it financially viable so it could pay the debt owed to service providers and start delivering uninterrupted services.
Emfuleni Municipality was expected to comment on the matter before the deadline yesterday.
The Star