{"id":870934,"date":"2026-08-21T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870934"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:45:04","slug":"another-major-municipality-in-gauteng-collapsing-owing-r10-8-billion-that-it-cant-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/870934\/another-major-municipality-in-gauteng-collapsing-owing-r10-8-billion-that-it-cant-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Another major municipality in Gauteng collapsing, owing R10.8 billion that it can’t pay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Emfuleni Local Municipality’s debt to major creditors has reached over R10 billion, resulting in significant service delivery failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emfuleni, located in the Vaal Triangle in southern Gauteng, includes Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Boipatong, Evaton, Sebokeng, and Sharpeville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kingsol Chabalala, the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Emfuleni, said that the Emfuleni Local Municipality is experiencing significant financial challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The municipality owes creditors R10.828 billion and is struggling to meet its obligation to pay these debts within the required 30 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This financial failure poses a significant risk to the area’s already compromised service delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents of Emfuleni frequently experience water and electricity outages, as well as interruptions to refuse removal due to late or non-payment to suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 31 May, 2026, Emfuleni owed its creditors a total of R10.828 billion, with the majority, R7.99 billion, representing invoices issued more than 200 days prior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The municipality owes R8.651 billion to Eskom and R2.107 billion to Rand Water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This information was disclosed by the Gauteng MEC for Finance, Nkululeko Dunga, in a written response to questions raised by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany businesses that have contracted with Emfuleni have suffered greatly due to non-payment or severely delayed payments,\u201d said Chabalala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has led to the crippling or even destruction of these businesses,\u201d Chabalala said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is in addition to the significant debts owed to Eskom and Rand Water, which supply essential services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) has announced that it is in a strong financial position, with a cash balance of R852 million and sufficient working capital to cover its short-term obligations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, the municipality reported that disciplined spending, careful cash management, and a R1.97 billion debt write-off from Eskom have contributed to these improvements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni said that the council has finalised plans to prioritise a payment of R407 million to Rand Water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThereafter, the municipality will systematically settle other outstanding creditors in a phased and orderly approach,\u201d said Sangweni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese measures are designed to reduce the overall debt burden, restore supplier confidence, and ensure long-term financial sustainability while enhancing essential service delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The municipality has allocated R210 million in Municipal Infrastructure Grant funding for essential community projects to enhance local facilities and improve residents’ quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emfuleni Municipality’s quest for solar fees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, MyBroadband<\/a> reported that the Emfuleni Local Municipality was planning to introduce an application fee and a monthly levy for homes with solar power installations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, the municipal council of Emfuleni approved a proposal requiring residents to pay an R2,400 application fee when installing a solar power system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After registration, households will also need to pay a monthly levy of R463 for generating their own electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gerda Senekal, the deputy leader of FF Plus Gauteng and an Emfuleni councillor, criticised the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe FF Plus sees this levy and application fee as nothing but a desperate attempt by Emfuleni to generate revenue, seeing as it is failing to provide sustainable electricity to paying residents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senekal emphasised that the plan follows the municipality’s transfer of electricity distribution and revenue collection to Eskom in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pointed out that the forfeiture resulted from the municipality\u2019s poor financial management.\u00a0Emfuleni is one of many municipalities that have been officially classified as bankrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its liabilities exceed its income, and its annual budgets have been underfunded for several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senekal said that residents will have the chance to oppose the application fee and levy during an upcoming public participation process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process is expected to begin soon. She also encouraged voters to take this situation into account when casting their ballots in the municipal elections set for November 4, 2026.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Emfuleni Local Municipality’s debt to major creditors has reached over R10 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":800960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2090801353459105892","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2182618385891894","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17869861164635289","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26242,1164,14467],"class_list":["post-870934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-emfuleni-local-municipality","tag-eskom","tag-rand-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870934"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871240,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870934\/revisions\/871240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}