AG Report: Emfuleni loses R768 million of the people’s money

8 February 2018

The DA calls on the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Paul Mashatile, to intervene in the financial irregularities at the Emfuleni Local Municipality. Mashatile needs to do the job that the people of Gauteng pay him to do, and ensure that municipalities function by delivering services to the people and that money is not squandered and lost.

The Auditor General's report has revealed that the Emfuleni Municipality has incurred a net loss of R768 870 050 during the year that ended 30 June 2017.

The Emfuleni Municipality routinely fails to deliver services to residents, despite a recent salary increase for the employees at the municipality.

Last week, residents of Emfuleni were without electricity for a number of days and the municipality failed to resolve this matter speedily. Many businesses and hospitals were left without electricity. Members of the community were forced to take matters into their hands to resolve this by fixing electricity meters themselves.

The municipality further failed to take steps to prevent unauthorised expenditure totaling R594 863 922, as disclosed in note 31 of the financial statements. Most of the unauthorized expenditure was caused by non-cash items and compensation for employees which was not budgeted for correctly.

The Emfuleni Local Municipality is in dire straits and the poor management of expenditure and of contracts makes matters worse.

The leadership of Emfuleni municipality has proven that it is incapable of providing residents with basic services. It's time for a total change in Emfuleni. The people of Emfuleni deserve a new beginning and new government led by the DA, where the people always come first and their money is not wasted.

Issued by Dady Mollo, DA Emfuleni Caucus Leader, 8 February 2018