Emfuleni residents suffer as ANC cadres loot the public purse

12 August 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has seen the draft forensic report into corruption in the Emfuleni Municipality which points to at least R1 billion worth of looting by officials.

Former and current officials are implicated in the report for a litany of allegations, chief among which are subverting tender processes and side-stepping Supply Chain Management protocol.

For years the DA had been warning the provincial government that the embattled municipality was on the verge of collapse due to nefarious activities of officials, low collection rates and huge debts to both Rand Water and Eskom.

This came to a head when both state-owned utilities threatened to disconnect the municipality’s water and electricity supply.

Former Gauteng MEC for Finance, Barbara Creecy had indicated that she and the provincial government had established a recovery plan with the municipality to ensure that services continued to be supplied to residents and that debts would be settled.

However, despite these promises almost two years ago, little has changed for the good of residents of Emfuleni.

It appears that the state of the municipality has deteriorated almost beyond repair.

The report, which we have scrutinised extensively, is a clear indication that – like all local municipalities run by the ANC, the needs of residents have been put on the backburner while plundering the public purse without any shame is priority number one.

The ANC has failed the people of this municipality.

The time has come for all three spheres of government to work in a collaborative manner to ensure that the situation is rectified and that the taps of corruption are shut once and for all in Emfuleni.

The DA, at all three legislative levels will push to ensure accountability and that those who have run Emfuleni into the ground are brought to book.

Issued by Adriana Randall, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Finance, 12 August 2019