But it is not yet known if the super-early February pay day extended to long-suffering service providers and third party payments or whether they must wait for Friday 25 Feb.

Previously two pay days were delayed for employees, councillors, service providers and third parties due to Eskom deliberately holding up normal payment procedures in December and January due to the R6 billion debt owed to the bulk utility provider.

Early pay day February was due to the direct and continuing intervention again of ELM Executive Mayor Sipho Radebe and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to avoid the chaos of salary and other payment delays on a wide range of individuals and service providers.

The impact on service providers – who directly support job creation and the economy of the Emfuleni and greater Vaal region – remains dire because they must carry salaries and costs but yet meet their contractual obligations towards the municipality.

A final settlement between warring State entities Eskom and ELM has not yet been reached but the attachment of the municipality bank accounts has been lifted on condition that it pays the monthly current account owed to Eskom, according to ELM Mayoral spokesperson Mphikeleli Msibi.

Premier Lesufi and his Provincial Cabinet last week held a crisis meeting with Mayor Radebe and his coalition Mayoral Committee to the ongoing contestation between ELM and Eskom, which has also sized more than R300 million national government grant funding supposedly ring-fenced for municipal service delivery in 2023.

Lesufi was expected to also last week met with the Vaal business community and possibly shed light on the state of negotiations between ELM and Eskom, but the meeting was postponed.

The SA Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has also promised to again demonstrate outside ELM Head Office in Vanderbijlpark this week to ensure that salary and other payments are not delayed, but have been upstaged by early payments.

SAMWU has slammed Eskom’s delaying of payments and demanded the bulk power utility stop attaching ELM bank accounts due to the devastating effects on workers, communities and the Vaal economy.

Eskom seized more than R327 million from ELM accounts in December alone, and reportedly wants another R71 million to conclude a new payment plan with the municipality – and to place its own cadres directly in control of the municipal electricity structure, infrastructure and revenue stream.

This is unacceptable to ELM’s coalition Government of Local Unity (GLU) which says the mafias currently paralysing Eskom management will be brought into ELM and Eskom control would be a de-facto coup which would replace a legally-elected administration.

Most ELM revenue is produced by electricity sales and most of the Emfuleni electricity infrastructure servicing business and communities is owned by the municipality.