Salaries trickle in for ELM employees and councillors
Payments were delayed after administrative arrangements, including not being able to find the Sheriff, broke down even before the weekend in the chain of events necessary to uplift court bank attachments on municipal accounts.
Sparks are expected to fly at a scheduled ELM Council this week after desperate municipal employees and councilors on Monday started receiving their delayed salaries – five days since the official payday.
Eskom and Rand Water are owed R6 billion and R1 billion respectively by ELM and each has attached separate municipal bank accounts which require bank attachments to be uplifted to pay salaries and other payments.
Payments started on Monday afternoon as promised by ELM.
Angry workers and councillors are expected to hold protests during the Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, where answers will be demanded of ELM to explain the saga of late salaries every month since December, said several councilors and employees.
Anger against especially Eskom and Rand Water attachments of ELM bank accounts has reached boiling with increasing calls for mass action against the two utilities, whilst employees have also vented anger against the municipality itself.
Salary delays have repeatedly occurred since December, but the present delay is the longest on record – since 25th May.
This is the picture of chaos and hardship emerging at the expense of municipal employees and councilors – and many municipal service providers who pump millions into the regional economy through their salaries.
An ELM memo over the weekend apologised profusely for the present situation, saying a meeting was held with Rand Water last Thursday after the water utility had reneged on an agreement on salary payments from an attached account.
“On Thursday 25 May the Municipality met with Rand Water to discuss a way forward after they withdrew their decision to uplift the attachment on the municipal bank account…
“The Sheriff was not available to respond to the Rand Water instruction as anticipated and as a result, employee salaries will be paid on Monday 29 May after the Sheriff has instructed the bank to uplift the account attachment,” said the memo.
Rand Water did not respond to requests for comment on the memo, despite a spokesperson on Saturday saying the attachment had been uplifted.
ELM owes Eskom more than R6 billion and Rand Water more than R1 billion and both bulk utilities have bank attachment orders on several municipal bank accounts from which salary payments must be made.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and ELM Executive Mayor Sipho Radebe facilitated deals with both Eskom and Rand Water well before last week’s payday.
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.
