Emfuleni Local Municipality in the south of Johannesburg continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. These are concerns about poor service delivery conditions that remain unresolved. Some of the service delivery issues that have been raised by citizens, political parties and the business community range from water, electricity and non-collection of waste in many municipal areas. One of the few dump sites in Palm Springs, which residents have resorted to using because of inadequate garbage collection by the municipality. Photo: GroundUp/Chris Gilili In the last month, an organization calling itself …
Emfuleni Local Municipality in the south of Johannesburg continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons.
These are concerns about poor service delivery conditions that remain unresolved.
Some of the service delivery issues that have been raised by citizens, political parties and the business community range from water, electricity and non-collection of waste in many municipal areas.
In recent months, an organization calling itself the Vereeniging Business Corporation (VBC) has threatened to boycott the payment of monthly municipal rates and taxes.
READ ALSO: ‘Service delivery is a joke’: Gatvol businesses boycott fares in Emfuleni
Talk to The WargaVBC director Mpho Khambule said some businesses are now boycotting paying for municipal services by paying the minimum rate.
“We only pay the minimum amount of all the bills and we will continue like this until the premiere gives the audience.
“We have been trying to meet the prime minister since last year and about four times he canceled the planned meeting,” Khambule said.
He said he decided to raise his concerns to the provincial government level because he had accepted that nothing would change in the municipality.
“It is also our opinion that Emfuleni is not taken into account by the national and provincial governments.
“Now we are in the most dangerous situation and the municipality does not participate with us, they will go around each individual business to ask for help and avoid the local chamber where most businesses are,” said Khambule.
The locals did what Emfuleni did not
Khambule said they are now collecting their own waste, as well as servicing and maintaining substations and water and sewage pumping stations.
“This is a problem because we are experiencing a reduction in power over and above the load and now we are losing 15 to 20% of our income because of the backup system that includes the generator.
“Eskom and Rand Water refused to lift the attached bank account due to default by Emfuleni,” said Khambule.
How to move forward?
Khambule said he has now given Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi until March 2 to meet with him, warning that if there is no meeting, he will have no choice but to take the legal route.
“We will be hosting an Emfuleni business community engagement forum later this month in an effort to support the canvass towards court action,” Khambule added.
Commenting further on the difficult situation in Emfuleni, councilor for the Democratic Alliance (DA) Dady Mollo said that storm water systems in many areas are blocked, collapsed, old or non-existent.
“This means that the base layer of the road is compromised, and the life of the road is deteriorating with potholes everywhere,” he said.
Electricity crisis
Mollo said electricity theft remains a major problem.
“The municipality is buying a lot of stolen electricity, but the municipality owes Eskom about R6 billion,” said Mollo.
He said some residents were also left in the dark for weeks because of the municipality’s response time, which was largely due to a malfunctioning call center.
Water crisis
Mollo said water leaks cost municipalities more than billions a year.
“Water leaks are being reported regularly through various communication channels but they are still not being repaired properly and on top of that the municipality is still facing the problem of municipal and aging infrastructure,” said Mollo.
Up to a month without removing the waste
“Ignoring waste disposal, forcing residents to live in unsanitary and unsanitary conditions is unacceptable as residents must continue to suffer because the ANC-led coalition fails to show the most basic respect for South Africans.
“The increased lack of delivery of basic services, deteriorating throughout the municipality, and the lack of public capacity to deal in a timely manner with this challenge of serious concern,” Mollo said.
“Even the ANC’s own coalition partners do not have confidence in the mayor (Sipho Radebe) until there is a contest between the mayor and the speaker.
“This coalition arrangement has not brought anything positive to Emfuleni, it has only made the situation worse because the municipality has gone backwards and the future of the ANC-led coalition will be ruined because they do not care about the people and all they want is to be in power. to satisfy ourselves instead of making life better for the citizens,” added Mollo.
Neither will win a majority in the 2021 elections, meaning a coalition will have to be formed which is currently led by the ANC.
READ ALSO: The ANC lost complete control of nine Gauteng municipalities
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for one of the coalition partners, New Horizon Movement (NHM) Mpho Khang admitted that service delivery has been lagging since the first attachment of Emfuleni’s bank account by Eskom in December last year.
“When the mayor is made useless and ineffective by his colleagues, he is a good man who wants to change, but he is powerless because he is not in the top six of the Regional Executive Committee (REC) of the ANC… Remember he is a compromise. Candidates and appointees did not get it because the ANC did not get proportional representation (PR) seats.
“We remain committed to the coalition with the ANC because it is the only one that promises stability and progress in service delivery,” Khang said.
Sewage spills, water leaks and collapsed water and sanitation infrastructure, according to Khang, are now the responsibility of the national government through Section 63 intervention.
“However, we are really frustrated because there is no change on the pitch but money is wasted.
“There is no synergy between the three stakeholders, which are the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Rand Water and us (Emfuleni) … everyone is doing what they want,” Khang added.
Speaking on behalf of Freedom Front Plus (FF+) in Emfuleni, Gerda Senekal described the situation as chaotic and quickly moving into a state beyond repair.
“Service delivery in Emfuleni is non-existent while irregular municipal decisions continue to be made by the ANC.
“The municipality is completely unresponsive to the community in a time of crisis and the coalition partners are now planning a motion of no confidence… that says a lot,” Senekal said.
He added that the coalition government is not helping in any way to solve the problem of service delivery.
Emfuleni is one of the local municipalities that the ANC considers a problem and will open it.
Emfuleni has not yet responded The WargaQuestions when publishing this article.
READ ALSO: The ANC has pledged to prioritize services by 2023