EMLM assets to be sold off
THE sale of Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) fleet of vehicles and other assets worth R21-million in settlement of a six-year-old debt owed to Milowo Trading Enterprise is set to take place at the sheriff’s office in Komani today.
EMLM withdrew its application to interdict the auction of its assets on Tuesday in the Grahamstown High Court.
The assets include 44 municipal vehicles comprising 18 trucks, 14 bakkies, two TLBs, a roller, a grader and 10 cars.
Sheriff Jenny Coetzee confirmed the auction at 10am today in Komani Street. The auction will then continue at EMLM’s technical services department in Brewery Lane where other vehicles are being kept.
There are growing fears that service delivery including refuse collection and road maintenance would be even further compromised if the sale went ahead.
The Rep reported (“Sheriff raids EMLM” April 27) that EMLM owed Milowo Trading Enterprise R21-million for a community hall built in 2012 in Sterkstroom and that the debt had accumulated interest. The debt owed currently stands at R58-million.
Milowo Trading’s Robert Goss said he and the municipality had entered into a settlement agreement to have the original debt of R21-million paid in instalments of R7-million a month starting from October last year, but the municipality did not adhere to the agreement.
Lionel Trichardt of Lionel Trichardt and Associates, who represents Milowo, said of the two actions the municipality planned against the case, one was withdrawn and the other is awaiting judgment next week.
“The municipality had applied to interdict the sale of its assets which it withdrew at the High Court on Tuesday but it will continue with its court bid to rescind the original judgement which requires the municipality to pay its R21-million debt to my client.
“Municipal manager Chris Magwangqana did not seem to know anything about the debt but all he wants is for the municipality not to pay. I will continue to fight for my client to be paid what is due to him.”
In court papers in possession of The Rep, Magwangqana indicated that the original court judgment to allow payment was erroneously granted and that the seizure of municipal assets would negatively affect service delivery.
Goss said: “All I want is to be paid what is owed to me. The municipal manager refuses to do so and that is frustrating. I used my personal money to build the hall because I was approached by the then municipal officials to help them out and now that I have, they do not want to pay me. I will not give up although this case has financially crippled me”.