EMFULENI. – The Democratic Alliance’s Caucus Leader of the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM), Teboho Tlhokwe, says the African National Congress (ANC) in ELM is choosing to prioritise political positions instead of service delivery.

This follows a decision by ELM Council to amend the current structure, introducing new positions in the political offices. The new positions include 10 Executive Support Officers for the offices of the Members of Mayoral Committees (MMCs) and 9 Researchers for the offices of the Chief Whips of Political Parties represented in Council.

According to ELM’s Spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni, the amendment of the organizational structure was effected in line with Section 6 (1) of Local Government: Municipal Staff Regulations.

“R15 million Rands is the estimated cost for these new positions and will be funded from municipality’s operational budget. Management has been mandated to ensure that part of this amount is funded from the current savings in the operational budget and not from service delivery budget in order to reduce the costs of these amendments.”

Sangweni states that the changes are aimed at enhancing the capacity of political offices which will deliver their mandates efficiently.

“The new positions provide a strategic vision and direction for the new political term, in a manner that will turn the municipality around and improve service delivery. Furthermore, the option of seconding staff that is already in the municipality into these positions will be explored, which might further reduce the costs.”

Tlhokwe says the decision comes at the detriment of providing services as ELM struggles to pay service providers and creditors to keep the municipality functional.

“The municipality has no money to pay for service delivery fundamentals like replacement of transformers, maintenance of infrastructure and yet they are willing to spend at least R15 million yearly on these positions.” The municipality is currently running on an unfunded budget with no sustainable cash flow.

“If these positions are needed then we do not need the Executive Directors as they should already serve as advisors to the MMCs. The municipality already has a bloated staff complement, and yet the ANC and its coalition partners want to add more staff.”

The DA says it tried without success to advise them against this exercise.

“The DA rejects this endeavour of cadre deployment at the expense of the community of Emfuleni. The R15 million that has been proposed should be redirected towards improving service delivery needs such as the maintenance of municipal vehicles, repairing potholes and taking care of the municipal infrastructure.”