SEDIBENG.- Following a report by Sedibeng Ster last week titled ‘ELM spends R 810 000 on overtime monthly’, the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) has come out fuming.

The municipality said that overtime benefit is limited to 25 hours per month for all qualifying employees and that Council gave a resolution that any overtime above the limit must be requested and approved in writing by the Municipal Manager (MM). It further said that the cost of overtime changes from month to month depending on backlogs, available trucks, available teams, number of weekends and public holidays in a month.

The monthly overtime expenditure, the ELM said, ranges between R400 000 and R800 000. In setting record straight, the ELM said that it renders waste management services in line with Section 152(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which states that, a municipality must strive, within its financial and administrative capacity, to achieve the objects set out in subsection (1). The municipality has urged political parties, especially those in council to desist from politicking with service delivery issues and running a negative narrative about the municipality’s well known service delivery challenges.