The DA in Emfuleni has demanded urgent answers from the municipality’s leadership after Rand Water attached the municipality’s bank accounts, despite an earlier agreement intended to stabilise the troubled relationship between the two entities.

The agreement, launched earlier this year, included the write-off of debt owed to Rand Water by the Emfuleni Local Municipality.

“This is a scandal of the highest order,” said Clr Elize Aucamp, the DA’s Emfuleni Shadow MMC for Finance. “Someone has either lied or made a massive mistake, and residents will again bear the brunt.”

The DA warned that the attachment of Emfuleni’s bank accounts could see already poor service delivery grind to a halt. Municipal staff may also go unpaid.

In addition to the financial crisis, the DA raised concerns over Emfuleni’s continued failure to address massive water losses. As of March, the municipality recorded non-revenue water losses of 57.3%, with more than half the water supplied by Rand Water lost before reaching residents.

“This means that more than half the accounts that are in arrears can be described as wasteful expenditure,” Aucamp said, blaming the crisis on failing leadership and a lack of infrastructure maintenance.

The DA has called for full transparency from the municipal manager and clarity on what went wrong with the Special Purpose Vehicle agreement, which had been touted as a lifeline for the cash-strapped municipality.