More money woes at Emfuleni

MORE wasteful expenditures have surfaced at the troubled Emfuleni Municipality with more than R100 million said to have been spent on labour disputes, while R4.5m has been spent on grave-digging services in the Sedibeng district municipality.

Emfuleni is one of three local municipalities comprising the Sedibeng District.

The DA’s constituency head for Emfuleni, Kingsol Chabalala, slated the municipalities’ move of outsourcing a multimillion-grave service contract.

“This could have been done internally and that money channelled somewhere else. It is also worrying that the municipality does not have a grave-digging department,” he said.

The municipalities’ Finance and Revenue MMC, Robert Thema, defended outsourcing the services.

“When the decision was made, we did not have enough capacity. However, we have made progress and a grave-digging department has been established so we should be able to carry out that service internally when that tender ends in about eight months’ time.”

In a written response to the DA’s enquiry in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Lebogang Maile said the tender was awarded to Sobangena Trading JV Spinks Trading and Inkokheli Business Enterprise from May 24, 2018 until April 23, 2021.

According to Chabalala, the municipality has been subject to additional wasteful expenditure because of labour court disputes.

“About R160 million has been spent to pay employees because the municipality has lost those cases. We have since requested the office of the MEC to investigate the municipalities’ code of conduct towards employees and labour legislation but no feedback has been given to us,” he said.

Thema would not divulge detailed information surrounding the municipalities labour dispute with its staff.

“It’s a sensitive matter and a complex issue. Some cases were lost because the municipality could not prepare for them because there is conflict of interest.”