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 the 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, 25 May. However, there is still no communication on when they will be paid.
The employees and councillors are now facing severe consequences as a result of financial mismanagement, maladministration and corruption that has brought this municipality to its knees.
Instead of spending money wisely to ensure that it can pay salaries and deliver services to its residents, Emfuleni continues to outsource services that can be done in-house. 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.
The DA demands that the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Mzi Khumalo, intervene urgently to ensure that salaries are 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.
We will continue to put pressure on both MEC Khumalo and Premier Panyaza Lesufi to rescue this municipality to be financially viable so it can pay the debt owed to service providers and starts delivering uninterrupted services.