Emfuleni has spent over R378 million on employees’ overtime for the past five years

28 October 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is shocked to learn that the ANC-led Emfuleni Local Municipality has spent over R378 million on employees’ overtime for the past five years.

This information was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile in a written reply to the DA’s questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).

According to MEC Maile, the following monies has been spent on employees’ overtime in the last five financial years:

2015/2016- R61 441 458,08
2016/2017- R76 800 147,68
2017/2018- R68 619 491,80
2018/2019- R80 975 953,56
2019/2020- R90 695 761,49
In total the municipality has paid R378 532 812,61 on employees for overtime in the last five financial years.

Furthermore, Emfuleni has paid the following monies to employees for overtime in four months of the national lockdown:

May 2020 – R 6 810 189,07
June 2020- R 8 771 092,07
July 2020- R7 060 115,67
August 2020- R6 641 669,32
In total Emfuleni has paid R 29 283 066,01 on employees’ overtime in four months of the national lockdown.

It is worrying that this municipality which is facing a serious cash flow problem continues to pay a ridiculous amount of money for employees’ overtime.

While we understand that there are situations where the employees must work overtime, however considering that this municipality is broke, it should have initiated a better way of compensating employees for overtime worked.

This money could have been used to ensure that basic services are rendered to Emfuleni residents by paying debt owed to service providers such as Eskom and Rand Water.

It is concerning that employees are paid overtime while service delivery has collapsed in Emfuleni.

It has now become the norm where the ANC governs to spend ridiculous amounts on employees while the residents suffer from a lack of adequate service delivery.

The DA calls on MEC Maile to urgently intervene and implement other ways of compensating the employees for overtime as part of his interventions to save this municipality. The MEC should ensure that Emfuleni’s finances are spent wisely for the benefit of its residents. We will also table follow-up questions to ascertain which departments are paying employees overtime and how much per employee is being paid.

Issued byKingsolChabalala,DA Emfuleni North Constituency Head, 28 October 2020