The application brought by the Save Emalahleni Action Group to compel the provincial and national executives to intervene into the affairs of Emalahleni Local Municipality will be heard in the High Court in Middelburg next week.
The date is set for Thursday, June 21.
The application is opposed by both the municipality and the provincial executive who maintain that the municipality is solvent. They deny that there is a crisis in the financial affairs of the municipality. A task team established by the provincial executive is busy with their own investigation into the municipal affairs. They deny that there are sufficient grounds for them to intervene into the affairs of the local municipality.
Mr Sizwe Mayisela, acting municipal manager admitted that problems encountered with the new integrated financial management system left consumers with incomplete and incorrect accounts.
“The majority of the systems errors and inadequacies in the new integrated financial management system were resolved by Vesta at the end of February and the municipality will therefore become able to pay the current usage of electricity to Eskom within a few months,” he stated in his affidavit.
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The provincial executive maintains that the Save Emalahleni Action Group is over-exaggerating the financial problems in the municipality.
The objective facts however suggest that the municipality short paid Eskom on their monthly electricity consumption for the period 30 June 2017 to 31 May 2018 in the amount of R 438 980 154.87; the municipality’s indebtedness towards Eskom increased from R 1 271 479 741.46 on 30 June 2017 to R 1 997 758 153.58 on 31 May 2018 and the municipality’s outstanding debt towards Eskom is the largest in the province and third largest in South Africa.
“The municipality’s budget for the 2018/19 financial year is unfunded. In short it means that the budgeted expenditure is more than the budgeted income,” Mr Johan Coetzee, local attorney who heads the Save Emalahleni Action Group, said.
Coetzee maintains that all the substantive requirements for a mandatory intervention in terms of section 139(5) of the Constitution have been present since at least 2012.
“By not following the mandatory provisions the provincial and national executives are effectively undermining the Constitution. It is now in the hands of the court to decide on the objective facts,” he said.
