The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Emfuleni is deeply concerned at the possibility that Emfuleni Local Municipality’s (ELM) employees and suppliers will go unpaid this month.
This follows the attachment of the municipality’s accounts by Eskom due to their inability to pay accounts last week.
Every single time there is an attachment of the municipality’s bank accounts, it must be known that the livelihoods of more than 2000 families will be impacted negatively. All of this could have been avoided had the ANC-led government listened to the advice of opposition parties and implemented all the necessary guidelines National Treasury put out for them.
In June of 2018, the Gauteng Provincial Executive intervened at the Emfuleni Local Municipality in terms of section 139(1)(b) and section 139(5)(a) of the Constitution read with section 139 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA)(Act No.56 of 2003). The mandatory Provincial Intervention required that a Financial Recovery Plan (FRP/Plan) be prepared.
ELM experienced difficulties with the implementation of the FRP, and a resolution was taken by the MEC for Finance in the Province in terms of section 144(1) of the MFMA to review and amend the current FRP.
During a Council sitting on the24th of May 2024, a budget of R8.6bn was tabled together with the proposal to prepare a feasible Financial Recovery Plan. This was for the financial years 2024/25, which we started with a deficit of R1.7bn.
In terms of Treasury Circular 124, any unfunded Budget by a municipality, constitutes financial misconduct.
In light of the above, the DA did not support the budget in the Section 80 Committee nor in Council. We continued to call for a budget that is funded and sustainable.
It is improbable that ELM would have provided Treasury with a different budget other than the one tabled on 24 May 2024 in the Council. Even the mayor, in his budget speech of 11 July 2024, confirmed that the budget was unfunded.
The institution finds itself in this situation purely because of the lack of political leadership, which is capable to hold senior officials accountable. We demand urgent intervention, due to the executive’s mismanagement more than 2000 families face the very real risk of having no income this month.