This is according to the head of Cooperative Governance (Cogta) Mokete Duma.

He tells OFM News that the department has received quite a number of complaints from service providers, including Bloemwater, about the municipality failing settle its debt.

Duma, however, says both his department and Treasury, including the municipality, have agreed to engage service providers with the intention to formulate a plan to pay its debt.

“We agreed that they must write letters to the service providers and then indicate how much they will be able to pay. The reason for that is to allow for the account to be unfrozen, pay the service provider a particular amount of money, and indicate how much they are going to be paying towards the area account - we hope to be able to make sure that the account it's active again and the municipality is able to take money from the investment account to the main account so that they are able to pay for salaries,” he adds.

Duma previously confirmed to OFM News that the cash-strapped municipality had its account frozen and attached to the South African Municipal Workers’ (SAMWU) pension fund following a court battle over a R25 million third party payment dispute.

In February 2021, Samwu's provincial secretary, Tiisetso Mahlatsi, told OFM News that workers who were employed from 2012 were not registered with the provident fund - but that money was being deducted with no contribution made by the municipality. Phama says the attachment has resulted in the municipality not being able to perform its operations as expected.

OFM News previously reported that the municipality in February had scheduled to auction its fleet towards the payment of municipal workers’ pension fund which allegedly has not been paid since 2012.

OFM News