ActionSA Calls for Emfuleni To Be Placed Under Administration, Slams Poor Governance

• ActionSA has called on Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to place the Emfuleni Local Municipality under administration
• The provincial chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, wrote to the chairperson of the Gauteng provincial Legislature's Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mzi Khmalo, and called for him to invoke Section 139(5) of the Constitution
• The section mandates the National Treasury to place a municipality under administration, and Ngobeni spoke to Briefly News about the urgent interventions needed for Emfuleni

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa, has covered policy changes, cabinet reshuffles, the State of the Nation Address, Parliament and Parliamentary committees, politician-related news and elections at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News for over seven years.

JOHANNESBURG, GAUTENG — ActionSA has called on Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to invoke Section 39(5) of the Constitution and place Emfuleni Local Municipality under mandatory administration.

The party's Gauteng chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, said the municipality has failed to improve despite being under administration for years. Ngobeni spoke to Briefly News about the municipality's poor financial management.

Why must Emfuleni be placed under administration?

Ngobeni wrote a letter to Mzi Khumalo, the chairperson of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature's Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Portfolio Oversight Committee, in March 2025. He said Emfuleni must be placed under Section 139(5) of the Constitution based on the municipality's ongoing and worsening financial and service delivery collapse.

Under section 139(5), a failing municipality is handed over to the provincial executive, which must impose a recovery plan and dissolve the municipal council if it cannot or does not approve legislative measures or any measures from the recovery plan.

Ngobeni said that the municipality suffers from unfunded budgets and financial instability, massive water and electricity losses, a collapse in service delivery, and governance and audit failures. He told Briefly News that poor financial management is one of the leading causes of the very poor service delivery in Emfuleni.

"There is no consequence management for wrongdoers and a lack of adequate, decisive intervention from the Gauteng Provincial Government. Poor governance is the root cause of poor service delivery, as it impacts infrastructure development and maintenance, financial management and supply chain processes, which directly affect service delivery," he said.

Poor service delivery in Emfuleni

Ngobeni said that Emfuleni residents are exposed to continued sewer spillages into the Vaal River, which pose severe health and environmental threats. He also said that waste collection is operating at under 54% efficiency.

Roads and stormwater infrastructure have also been neglected. Due to an infrastructure failure, 62% of the province's water was lost, costing the municipality R385 million. The city has also lost 22% of its electricity, equating to R368 million in lost revenue.

What will happen under section 139(5)?

Ngobeni said the provincial executive must invoke Section 139(5). Under the invocation, the National Treasury assumes direct oversight of Emfuleni. This will include immediate budgetary control, a debt recovery strategy, infrastructure restoration, leadership stabilisation, and audit compliance.

He told Briefly News that aggressive debt recovery and compliance with Eskom's debt relief framework are needed. This includes prioritised infrastructure restoration and turnaround in water, electricity and sanitation services.

He said the Section 139(1)(b) intervention, which placed the municipality under the province and ended in 2022, failed dismally.

Emfuleni struggles

The Democratic Alliance slammed Emfuleni for spending R561 million on overtime. COGTA MEC Jacob Mamabolo revealed that the municipality spent over R91 million in the 2019/2020 financial year, R102 million in the 2020/2021 financial year, over R124 million in the 2022/2023 financial year and over R122 million in the 2023-2024 financial year over employees who did not report for duty during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2018, the municipality has also returned R640 million to the National Treasury. The MMC for Finance, Hassan Mako, said Eskom and Rand Water attached the municipality's bank accounts because of debts owed to State-Owned Enterprises.

Emfuleni employees earned R3 million while AWOL

In a related article, Briefly News reported that Emfluleni investigated workers who were absent after an AWOL employee earned over R3 million since 2019.

The Democratic Alliance queried the employee, who had been employed since 2019 and earned over R65,000 a month while absent without leave.

Source: Briefly News