A group of business owners in Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg, have decided to boycott payment for municipal services to the embattled Emfuleni local municipality.
Emfuleni has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for the longest time now.
In recent times, Eskom obtained a court order to attach assets to the tune of R1.3 billion belonging to the municipality due to a continuous debt.
ALSO READ: Eskom explains why Emfuleni left them no choice but to attach municipality’s assets
The municipality was placed under administration in 2018 until recently.
Speaking to The Citizen, director of the Vereeniging Business Corporation (VBC) Mpho Khambule said 900 members have taken a decision to boycott rates and taxes, meaning no payments of rates will be made by the end of this month.
According to Khambule the boycott will last until the provincial and national government is serious about intervention in Emfuleni.
“The Human Rights Commission and the high court have been approached to secure a court order that will protect our members against disconnections by the municipality,” said Khambule.
Khambule said the Gauteng provincial government took too long before intervening in 2018.
“The intervention also lacked a plan to sort out the financial decay of the municipality and there was just no plan to capacitate the municipality with qualified people.
“There is also a staffing and vacancy crisis in the area of engineering and basic service departments,” said Khambule.
Business lose up to 50% of income
Khambule called on national government to declare the municipality a human rights disaster and appoint the Minister of Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to run the municipality according to Section 100 of the Constitution.
According to Khambule, businesses have lost up to 55% of their income, with some businesses having already left the area, going to either the Midvaal local municipality or other provinces.
Retrenchments of up to 30% of staff have taken place due to the relocation or total closure of businesses.
Role of politics
Khambule said politics in the area has never been stable, and he added the very same politicians are a contributing factor to the deteriorated state of affairs in the municipality.
Last year’s local government elections also did not produce an outright majority, leaving the African National Congress (ANC) leading the municipality through a coalition arrangement.
ALSO READ: ANC loses full control in nine Gauteng municipalities
Not even the coalition arrangement has helped the situation, Khambule said, describing it as a joke.
The monthly rates and taxes payed by small, medium and big businesses are believed to range between R5 000 and R2 million.
When approached for comment early this week, the mayoral spokesperson Mphikeleli Msibi said Emfuleni is still engaging internally on the approach.
Plans for a meeting with VBC before the end of the week were afoot, Msibi said when he was pressed again on Wednesday.
Spokesperson for the municipality Makhosonke Sangweni had not responded to the questions posed by The Citizen at the time of publishing this article.
