SOWETAN | Time for Emfuleni mess to end

The Emfuleni municipality continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons with a series of administrative blunders that point to its state of total dysfunction.

On Monday, we reported that the municipality was set to lift the suspension of two employees after four years of twiddling their thumbs at home on full pay without being charged.

One was even able to earn an increase during this period.

The employees were accused of corruption, breaching the code of conduct and gross dishonesty after they allegedly asked for a bribe from a resident to earn a rebate. Their case dragged on with the municipality failing to secure their hearings because it claimed a key witness on the matter could not be secured to testify.

As a result, according to municipal spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni, their case was in the process of being withdrawn to allow them to return to work.

But theirs is not an isolated case of misjudgment on the part of those tasked with running the embattled municipality beset by debt and cash flow problems.

In July. we reported how a senior engineering technician had been getting a monthly salary for four years despite not reporting for duty.

He had been sitting at home because his boss at the municipality’s parks and cemeteries department had obtained a protection order against him following threats of violence. We also uncovered a month earlier that an ANC ward councillor had been exempt from paying municipal services because of a faux pas that saw him appear on the indigent register.

All these are just a few examples of cases of mismanagement at Emfuleni that we have reported on in recent months. Worryingly there could still be more such incidents that have gone unreported because oversight in the affairs of the municipality’s administration by its elected council appears to be nonexistent. The cases that were reported on came to light because of opposition questions to relevant MECs in the Gauteng legislature.

Needless to say, no one in the municipality appeared to have any clue how such blatant lack of accountability was allowed to fester for so long at a great cost to ratepayers. This further indicates the wholesale failure of governance and management.

While some of these incidents may have looked comedic at face value, the real joke is on the ratepayers who are subjected to such chaotic government.

This, however, must end before it becomes more tragic for residents.