Emfuleni municipality fleet ‘repossessed'

Emfuleni municipality’s garage is soon going to be empty.

Concerns have now been raised over the possibility that service delivery might implode after the municipalities lost all its cars.

Watchdog the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says the municipality’s fleet was “repossessed” due to non-payment.

It includes cars from the traffic, water and electricity departments, and vehicles used by the local fire brigade.

The municipality has denied the claims, saying the contract with the service provided had come to an end.

“The contract that we had with the company has lapsed so as a municipality we are not renewing the contract. The company is taking back its own fleet because we are not renewing our contract with them,” says spokesperson, Stanley Gaba.

But Outa’s Michael Holenstein remains adamant that the municipality did not pay its bills.

“Surely, if a contract comes to an end they don’t prepossess vehicles. Had the contract come to an end they would have had another contract immediately, but they don’t.”

The Freedom Front Plus says the municipality “is at its knees” and needs the immediate intervention from provincial leadership.

The party’s Gauteng leader Jaco Mulder also believes the vehicles had to be returned due to overdue debt.

The municipality has vowed that service delivery will not be affected – saying the cars will be released in batches until the new servicer provider comes onboard in December.

“At this point there is a list of cars we are giving in to them, they will be taking them in batches and not all at once. We prioritised the cars they can take on certain days whilst we complete this as speedily as possible,” says Gaba.