Anger as Emfuleni spends more on overtime than services

The DA has said it was losing about 56% of its water due to water leakages, illegal water network connections, faulty metering, incorrect meter readings, and old and dilapidated water infrastructure, yet the municipality continued to spend on overtime for Metsi A Lekoa employees.

DA Emfuleni North Constituency head, Kingsol Chabalala, said the residents of Emfuleni were bearing the cost of an increase in rates for water and low water pressure due to the municipality’s failure to attend to reported water leaks timeously and pay its debt to Rand Water while employees were paid exorbitant overtime.

Chabalala said this was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile, in a written reply to his questions tabled in the Gauteng provincial legislature.

Meanwhile, Maile said Emfuleni had spent more than R65million on overtime for Metsi A Lekoa employees in the past four financial years.

“This is unacceptable as Emfuleni residents are complaining about the municipality’s failure to attend to reported water leaks, blast water pipes, and sewer blockages. This has resulted in spillages across many streets in Emfuleni, which is a health hazard.”

He said the money wasted on Metsi A Lekoa employees could be used to replace and fix the municipality’s ageing water pipes to ensure they reduced water losses.

The party said it would engage with councillors in Emfuleni to table the issue of water losses and the cutting down of money being spent on employees’ overtime.

“This will assist in adopting measures to curb the waste of taxpayers’ money and ensure that the little money that Emfuleni has is spent wisely for the benefit of its residents. We will continue to put pressure on the Emfuleni mayor to prioritise fixing and maintaining water infrastructure and educating residents about saving water,” Chabalala said.

He said Emfuleni must adopt effective water-control measures and fix the ageing water infrastructure.