Media Room

The Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) has noted with disappointment the content of the article on Page 6 of the City Press newspaper dated 25 March 2012. In the article, it is mentioned that “Ten of the country’s most expensive management teams are in municipalities which have populations of fewer than 300 00. Some of the best salary packages for municipal managers are found in small municipalities”.

In its sixth bullet point, the article points out that “Another top earner is Emfuleni Municipality’s Manager in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng: data shows the incumbent earns a package of R2 006 200”.

The parts of the article which are mentioned above with specific mention to the Emfuleni Local Municipality do not only misrepresent the facts but also misleads the Emfuleni community and the public at large.

Firstly, an impression is created that the population of Emfuleni is fewer than 300 000, which is factually incorrect. Our population is actually more than double the figure mentioned in the article. According to the community survey, ELM population has slightly decreased from 658 422 in 2001 to 650 867 in 2007. This actually makes Emfuleni Local Municipality the biggest local municipality in Gauteng.

Secondly, a perception has been created that our Municipal Manager is another top earner with a package of R2 006 200. This is factually incorrect. The Municipal Manager’s package is around R1 622 450. The criteria used to calculate the Emfuleni Municipality’s Municipal Manager’s package when the article was written is questionable.

Thirdly, the headline of the article “Best paid Councils do the worst jobs” gives an impression that our Municipality is one of the Municipality’s around the country that has dismally failed its community in relation to service delivery. We find the statement to be unreasonable and misleading. Undoubtedly, we feel that we have made substantial improvements in the lives of the people of Emfuleni.

To mention just a few, we have successfully implemented and completed the following service delivery projects:

• Electrified more than 900 hundred houses in Tshepong township
• Increased electricity capacity at various substations to meet the demand as a result of residential and business expansion
• Extended water supply to agricultural holdings
• Achieved a 98% waste collection rate from all areas
• Extended collection of waste in various informal settlements
• Established a Monitoring and evaluation Section, which also monitors and acts on the Presidential Hotline and Provincial Hotline enquiries in addition to our own Hotline.
• We are at 100% coverage for basic services in formal areas. These include water, sanitation and electricity.
• Created 247 temporary jobs through EPWP
• Constructed a fire station in Evaton and many other projects
• Expanded our electricity infrastructure in Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging.
• Initiated a Regional Sewer Scheme totaling over R4 billion in the next five years.

Furthermore, we have been able to significantly improve our expenditure on Municipal Infrastructure Grant from a mere 39% in 2010 to 74% in 2011. This is likely to improve further in the current financial year. It is also important to note that our budget has increased from R3,8 billion in 2011 to  R4,6 billion in 2012.

More information is available in our 2010/2011 Annual Report for perusal. It is so unfortunate that the general rule of verifying the facts did not apply when this article was written with a specific mention of Emfuleni Local Municipality. Our Municipality was not given the right to respond thus the article contains misleading figures about the population and the salary package of the Municipal Manager and that we are one of those that are doing the WORST JOB.

I would challenge anyone who is under the impression that our Municipality is not doing anything, to visit our area and see the developments. We might not have achieved all what we wanted to achieve but we have surely moved in terms of our service delivery mandate.

Issued by the Office of the Executive Mayor
Enquiries: Klaas Mofomme
Spokesperson: Emfuleni Local Municipality
Contact: 016 – 950 5309 / 082 610 5718
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