Embattled Emfuleni local municipality in the Sedibeng region can’t account for 57% of the water it purchased in the 2020/21 financial year, with the cash-strapped municipality having lost R500-million worth of water in the process.
This information is contained in the municipality’s annual report.
According to council officials, the water wastage was the result of Emfuleni’s Metsi Lekwa water and sanitation department’s lack of a water demand and supply management strategy.
“There was no plan to safeguard loss of water as the strategy was not in place, hence there was such a waste of millions of rand in clean running water getting wasted. There are water and sewerage leaks in many parts of Emfuleni, and nothing is being done to put a stop on the waste of water,” said an official in the municipality.
The auditor-general also flagged irregularities, which she said the municipality had failed to prevent. These irregularities cost the Emfuleni over R191-million in interest and penalties for late payments to Eskom, Rand Water and other service providers.
An additional R80-million worth of wasteful expenditure was also flagged in the annual report. This was due to supply chain non-compliance, with tenders being issued through deviations.
DA spokesman on water and sanitation in Emfuleni Daddy Mollo said the municipality has been losing millions of litres of expensive treated water because it does not maintain its infrastructure. “Adopting effective water control measures is a smart investment that will ease the burden on consumers, preserve water resources and set the standard for responsible governance and resource protection,” he said.
Emfuleni municipality has been poisoning the Vaal River, South Africa’s second-biggest river and source of half of Gauteng’s water, for more than a decade due to its dysfunctional treatment plants.
The municipality’s mayor, Sipho Radebe, in the foreword of the report, said: “Critical and scarce skills in the municipality continue to affect the provision of effective and efficient services, for instance, electricity, water and sanitation functions require more technical skills and in this case, there is a shortage of skilled personnel who can assist the municipality in rendering quality services to the people.”
Emfuleni spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni said the municipality is addressing the issue. “At the last council meeting, a resolution was adopted to embark on a process to investigate unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” he said.
“Thus the auditor-general report has been referred to the municipal public accounts committee for further scrutiny and recommendations for remedial steps and possible consequence management based on their deliberations,” he said.
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