Emfuleni to ‘immediately’ pay salaries after employees stage picket

Aggrieved Emfuleni Municipality workers on Tuesday staged a picket to protest against the non-payment of their September wages. They reportedly strewed trash in the streets and blocked off the Gauteng municipality’s offices.

Eskom recently attached four of Emfuleni’s bank accounts in a bid to recoup more than R8.7-billion it is owed by the municipality. Emfuleni accounts for 10% of all municipal debt owed to Eskom. A failure to reach an agreement on accessing its accounts meant the municipality was unable to pay its employees.

Following the attachment of its bank accounts, the municipality cracked down on those who owed it for unpaid services and disconnected the electricity of non-paying residences and businesses.

Emfuleni communications manager Makhosonke Sangweni told Daily Maverick on Wednesday, “Salaries will immediately be paid and operations will be back to normal for now and in the future.”

The municipality has gone to court to have its four bank accounts released and is in talks with the National Treasury regarding its participation in the Eskom Municipal Debt Relief programme, which Eskom said it failed to comply with.

Sangweni told EWN on Tuesday, “Eskom wants us to pay the R250-million per month. And we said we are only able, which is what we are doing every month, to pay R150-million. They insist that they want R250-million. When they want R250-million, they are crippling us, they are crippling service delivery and the municipality at large.”

On Wednesday he told Daily Maverick, “An agreement is in place now between us and Eskom and will be signed today, if not [then] tomorrow.”

Read more: A tale of two Gauteng municipalities — Midvaal’s clean audit triumph vs Emfuleni’s persistent woes

Endemic problems

“We sympathise with the municipality but we need to eat and feed our families. I have already defaulted on my debits and that will likely worsen my frail financial status,” said an Emfuleni employee.

The municipality, which is run by the ANC, has struggled for years to provide services to residents.

In 2018, the then Gauteng premier, David Makhura, placed Emfuleni under administration for six months because of allegations of maladministration and its failure to provide adequate services. The intervention failed to redress the municipality’s financial troubles and the Auditor-General said it did not benefit residents.

Emfuleni, home to nearly one million residents in Evaton, Sebokeng, Sharpeville, Boipatong, Bophelong and Tshepiso, struggles under the weight of its inefficiencies. Residents’ lives are marred by persistent financial and service delivery issues, reflecting a broader crisis in local governance.

In March and November 2023, Emfuleni’s bank accounts were attached by Rand Water for the non-payment of a R2-billion debt.

It is one of the poorest-performing municipalities in Gauteng, as can be seen in Good Governance Africa’s Governance Performance Index. The National Treasury recently warned it would face an intervention if it does not improve. DM