Salaries were to have been paid on Thursday after ELM and Eskom reached agreement to allow municipal salaries to be paid.

The deal was also confirmed by Eskom and was reached on Tuesday in a meeting including Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and ELM Executive Mayor Sipho Radebe. The contents of the deal have not been made public.

But as of Friday morning salaries for employees and Councillors had not yet been paid but the delay was ascribed to miscommunication in the long administrative chain necessary to lift bank attachments.

Repeated salary delays have sparked widespread anger against Eskom which had previously made payment demands regarded as impossible to lift its bank attachment on the municipal salary account.

“We agreed to release the bank account so that salaries can be paid with the condition that the municipality pay its current account and sign the payment arrangement that we have given to them,” an Eskom spokesperson said this week.

Repeated month-end salary delays have sparked severe anger and frustration against Eskom Gauteng, which has been handling negotiations to uplift their bank attachment on ELM’s salary account.

Eskom has repeatedly applied applied month-end blackmail pressure for huge payments from the municipality, including funds ring-fenced for service delivery.

ELM owes Eskom more than R6 billion and Rand Water more than R1 billion.

The SA Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has already demanded that both Eskom and Rand Water cease attaching municipal bank accounts, warning of the huge negative impacts on service delivery and the Emfuleni economy if salaries cannot be paid.

However, it is understood that Rand Water, has earlier agreed to temporarily lift its attachment order for certain payments to be made.

According to a Eskom letter leaked by Eskom employees prior to the latest agreement, Eskom wanted more than R600 million from ELM in coming days up to 6 June to uplift its own attachment.

The ailing power utility is also now again threatening to cut off electricity supply to Emfuleni, according to a leaked Eskom letter to ELM and which highlights the ambush tactics used by the utility in its dealings with the municipality.

The letter, signed by Mpumelelo Mnyani, Eskom Gauteng Senior Manager Customer Relations, indicated it would only uplift its bank attachment on the following conditions:

• Pay R384 432 497 to bring ELM’s current account up to date
• Give an undertaking to pay another R187 914 974 million into the current account by 6 June
• Submit to Eskom a duly signed payment agreement on the total debt owed Eskom by ELM