It further said that the cost of overtime changes from month to month depending on backlogs, available trucks, available teams, number of weekends and public holidays in a month.

The monthly overtime expenditure, the ELM said, ranges between R400 000 and R800 000. In setting record straight, the ELM said that it renders waste management services in line with Section 152(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which states that, a municipality must strive, within its financial and administrative capacity, to achieve the objects set out in subsection (1).

The municipality has urged political parties, especially those in council to desist from politicking with service delivery issues and running a negative narrative about the municipality’s well known service delivery challenges.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) had issued a statement last week saying that there is nothing to show for the overtime money that is being paid to the waste removal employees as months pass without refuse being collected in Emfuleni. DA’s Kingsol Chabalalala said that it is extremely concerning that the waste removal employees are paid exorbitant overtime while Emfuleni townships and suburbs are dirty which poses a health risk to the residents.

The municipality said that currently, the Waste Department has a staff compliment of 276 personnel servicing more than 220 000 households with 203 vacant positions. This is due to the fact that services are provided largely on revenue collected from residents. The municipality has been struggling with revenue collection for some time

“The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic felt in the municipality’s disadvantaged communities resulted in more residents failing to pay for services. The municipality heavily relies on cross subsidization of services by consumers who pay for services. The levels of indigence in Emfuleni outweigh our ability to extend the coverage of services to higher levels and as a result, services are kept at minimum levels.”

The ELM further said that waste generation occurs in varying quantities across Emfuleni.

“The municipality is currently operating with a schedule highly influenced by economic differences in varying communities in Emfuleni. Waste generation has been categorised from High Volume to Medium Volume and Low Volume. As Emfuleni Local Municipality we have never denied our service delivery challenges which we’ve had for some time dating back to local government elections in 2016.”

The municipality has called upon all consumers of Emfuleni and other stakeholders, to pay for their services. This is so that revenue collections can improve to assist the processes of providing quality service for all.