The visit is a formal briefing by the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) aimed at soliciting inputs from Executive Mayor, Cllr. Sipho Radebe, the Mayoral Committee, Councilors, office of the Municipal Manager and Organized Labour on how best to rescue Emfuleni.

“The leadership of this municipality has presented to us ways in which GPG can assist in rescuing this municipality, however, there are five areas of deep concern. The first one is the debt management of Emfuleni; with the latest audit reports it is quite clear that the municipality is insolvent. We can not claim that this is a going concern nor that it manages its finances well. ELM owes Eskom 6 billion, the only way to get out of the debt trap is to abide by the plan as presented to us by the Emfuleni Executive management,” Lesufi said.

“The audit outcome is number two of the concerns, the report is damaging as it speaks to the mismanagement of public resources in the municipality. The day-to-day challenge of Emfuleni of the non-payment of salaries comes as a third challenge. The viability of the municipality is number four on the list, ELM keeps on piling up debt through several ways, water and electricity losses top the list. GPG intervention comes in at number five on the list,” Premier added.

Lesufi mentioned that the GPG intervention does not come empty handed this time around as a budget has been allocated towards road maintenance, with 40 roads identified for rehabilitation across Emfuleni. GPG has also cherrypicked areas of service delivery which need immediate intervention without going through long-winding processes. The cleanliness of the region is one such service that the provincial government has committed to assist with.

“The cleanliness of the region is key to us, as the provincial government we want to take over part of that responsibility. With GPG resources, skills, and capability we can aid Emfuleni to keep the region clean,” Premier Lesufi said.

The provincial government will further engage the leadership of the municipality on which areas GPG can use its resource base to alleviate immediate financial challenges plaguing the municipality.

“The challenge of Emfuleni is intergovernmental debt, which simply means that the municipality owes institutions that are within government and as a result, the attachment of bank accounts and going to courts does not assist the people of Emfuleni in any way. There must be a better mechanism coordinated by the presidency to manage this debt. As the GPG, we are prepared and committed to provide the necessary support to Emfuleni,” Lesufi concluded.