SEDIBENG. – If the situation is not saved, a bleak Christmas awaits the employees of the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM).

This is after a memorandum was issued on Monday saying that their December salaries would be paid late as the municipality is facing financial challenges. In the memorandum, it is said that the non-processing of the salaries is based on Eskom having attached the municipality’s bank account. The national electricity supplier successfully applied for the attachment of ELM’s bank account early last month.

Plans by the ELM to meet it’s then head, Andre de Ruyter to reach an amicable situation on the matter have seemingly proven futile. De Ruyter has since resigned from Eskom, however, he is expected to officially vacate his office early next year.

“Emfuleni municipality is currently indebted to Eskom to the amount of R5.3 billion despite several litigations brought by the power utility since March 2018 to get the municipality to service its account,” Eskom said in a statement early last month.

The ELM memorandum assured employees that senior management is currently in the process of resolving the current situation.

“The municipality is in constant contact with the office of the premier and Eskom itself,” the memorandum said.

Recently many, amongst them former Midvaal Local Municipality Executive Mayor Bongani Baloyi, have called for the ELM to be dissolved and put back under administration, which it has been under previously and was only removed in September this year. The ELM is currently headed by Mayor Sipho Radebe who together with his executive have acknowledged the alleged “inherited financial struggles” that they are facing.