ANC’s Emfuleni Administrator is failing residents

13 October 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng notes with great concern that the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s bank account has been attached and blocked following the Gauteng High Court ruling and judgement in favour of the BXCSA company.

The legal battle between Emfuleni and the Chinese BXCSA company over the termination of the smart meter contract in the Vaal by Emfuleni has caused more losses to this cash-strapped municipality.

The BXCSA has successfully attached the municipal bank account and secured R45 million. Due to insufficient funds in the Emfuleni Municipality’s bank account the BXCSA has also blocked the account.

Emfuleni will not be able to function properly without the attached and frozen bank account as this will have a huge negative impact on the payment of the employees and Councilors’ salaries as well as the payment to Eskom and Rand Water.

This clearly indicates that the ANC’s Emfuleni Administrator is failing to rescue this municipality from its serious long-term cashflow problems.

Service delivery has completely collapsed in Emfuleni and the attachment of the bank account will worsen the situation.

It is also alleged that Emfuleni has another bank account of which its creditors and councilors are unaware.

The DA will be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to ascertain the details of the second unknown Emfuleni bank account , the reasons why the municipality opened the account and why it did not disclose this and whether is it legal for the municipality to have a second bank account that has not been disclosed to its creditors and the council.

We will continue to monitor the progress of this case and ensure that service delivery is not disrupted.

Issued by Kingsol Chabalala, DA Emfuleni North Constituency Head, 13 October 2020