The Gauteng Provincial Government – which has appointed ELM Lead Administrator Gilberto Martins – is also reportedly frustrated at resistance and apathy by senior ELM officials towards service delivery at the embattled municipality.
Central to the issue is the “absolute determination” of the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) to secure municipal infrastructure and assets to prevent cable and transformer theft which often leaves Vaal communities and business in darkness and paralysis.
The GTCoC has now drawn a line in the sand on not only ELM’s mammoth security budget, but also on its “ïnhuman and futile” approach on deploying stationary security guards to prevent recurring rampant sabotage and vandalism of key infrastructure.
When approached for comment, acting ELM Municipal Manager Thabo Ndlovu said this week he was not aware of GTCoC concerns and would engage with them on the matter.
“’I will need to first engage formally to assess exactly what the issues are because I am presently not aware,” said Ndlovu.
But the GTCoC said it was continuously inter-acting in a structured committee with ELM on the matter and had engaged Executive Mayor Gift Moerane on the issue as well.
“Business and the community will resist ELM on its present security regime which boils down to huge costs at R11 million per month but which cannot prevent even municipal office occupations let alone rampant theft and sabotage.
“We are also hugely concerned at the blatant exploitation and endangerment of security employees – setting them up as stationary sitting ducks and often alone in isolated areas to face well-armed syndicates with automatic weapons,” said GTCoC CEO Klippies Kritzinger.
Kritzinger added it was clear corrupt patronage networks within ELM wanted thefts and sabotage so they could continue giving huge contracts to replace damaged or stolen infrastructure parts despite no effective outcomes.
“There is still no best-practice anti-corruption strategy at ELM and the last time it had an effective service provider on intelligence and hunting down cables thieves the then Municipal Manager Oupa Nkoane deliberately sabotaged it over time by not paying invoices on time.
“The GTCoC is thus suspicious of ELM’s approach towards security which disempowers pro-active intelligence-driven action by only posting a few under-gunned guards who can do nothing to change the situation,” said Kritzinger.
ELM was thus completely callous towards security guards and using them as human shields to allow corruption to continue, Kritzinger added.
