The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has slammed premier Panyaza Lesufi and MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Jacob Mamabolo, for failing to prevent troubled Emfuleni local municipality from being unable to pay staff due to Eskom’s outstanding debt of R8 billion.
The Sunday Independent reported that the situation at the cash-strapped municipality, head-quartered in Vanderbijlpark, has gone from bad to worse as the employees have not received their salaries for September.
This was after Eskom recently attached the municipality’s four bank accounts due to an outstanding electricity debt of R8 billion.
DA leader in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga, expressed concern over the lack of a financial recovery plan for the municipality to improve its financial situation.
“Emfuleni residents and employees bear the cost of not fixing Emfuleni’s finances because of a severe lack of service delivery and a failure to pay salaries on time.”
He criticised Lesufi and Mamabolo for being praised for facilitating the agreement between Emfuleni and Eskom, blaming them for their failure to tackle the municipality’s financial hardships.
He demanded the two leaders to present a workable plan to improve the municipality's financial challenges.
“This will ensure that there will be no future attachments of the Emfuleni’s bank accounts and assets by creditors.
“This follows the announcement that an agreement had been reached between Emfuleni and Eskom to release the municipality’s accounts after they were attached by the sheriff of the court to ensure that the money collected for electricity was paid directly to Eskom.”
Msimanga said this is not the first time a similar situation happened, saying that it occurred in 2021.
“If Lesufi and Mamabolo were heroes, Emfuleni would be in a better financial position; it would be paying its creditors on time and within the stipulated payment arrangements.”
He said the municipality was once placed under administration, but the administrator failed to save this municipality from the financial crisis.
“Before it was placed under administration, the same ANC government that brought it to its knees had failed to save it. This municipality is still in the hands of the government that destroyed it, and they are not serious about rescuing it.”
Msimanga said the party is calling for the immediate dispatch of provincial financial experts to assist the struggling municipality with managing its finances.
“As much as there are systems in place for financial management, this municipality continues to drown in debt and is basically on its last legs.”
He said Lesufi and Mamabolo must present a long-term plan on how the attachments of accounts will be prevented in the future.
“It cannot be business as usual now that a resolution has been found. We need to know what will be done to avoid a recurrence of this,” Msimanga said.
He suggested that the ANC should seek advice from the DA-run Midvaal municipality, claiming that it is well-managed.
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