Thousands of ELM employees and councilors can now breathe easy after the municipality on Friday began processing salary payments delayed this month by Eskom’s attachment of the local authority’s bank account.

The move came after the SA Municipal Worker’s Union slammed both Eskom and ELM for their role in salaries being paid late.

ELM spokespersons were not available to confirm but Vaalweekblad is in possession of confirmation by Executive Mayor Sipho Radebe that a deal had been struck with Eskom and salaries would be paid after the bank attachment on the municipal account was lifted.

ELM owes Eskom about R5,7 billion in outstanding debt and the bulk power utility recently took steps to attach the municipality’s bank account and vehicle fleet.

This resulted in ELM not being able to exert control over the account to pay salaries – believed to be about R120 million per month – and thousand of employees and service providers were forced to wait for payment.

Delay in salary payments on the verge of the Christmas long weekend caused consternation in municipal ranks after a formal notice indicating the delay was issued on Monday.

Intensive high-level negotiations involving ELM Mayor Sipho Radebe and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi were already underway for some time but a deal was struck this week after intervention by Public Enterprises Minister Gordhan, who is responsible for State-owned enterprises such as Eskom.

Outgoing Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter also intervened recently in an attempt to break the impasse between the two State entities ELM and Eskom.

The details of the agreement reached between Eskom and ELM are not yet public but are understood to contain stringent financial and management measures to ensure electricity payments reach Eskom in the future.

Eskom recently attached ELM’s accounts and seized its vehicle fleet in terms of a court order on R1,3 billion debt.

This brought service delivery at the embattled municipality to an almost complete halt and resulted in the personal intervention of de Ruyter, who recently also announced his own resignation from the utility.