In a letter to its workforce and councillors, the municipality, among others, mentions its primary bank account has been frozen due to its debt to the ailing power utility Eskom.

ALSO READ: Eskom attaches ailing Free State municipality's bank account

In the letter, the Acting Municipal Manager, Kadimo Masekoane, says there might be a slight delay in the payment of salaries for the month of March. It is further explained that salaries would be paid sometime this week.

Masekoane was seconded by CoGTA at the beginning of March and will be acting in the position for three months until an MM has been appointed.

This is the second time the municipality fails to pay workers in two consecutive months.

In February 2023, a letter from the municipality revealed that the municipality has a salary bill of about R3.6 million and has just under R1.47 million in its bank account

ALSO READ: Free State municipal workers possibly paid later

Another letter sent to workers by Masekoane about the debt to Eskom, stated in a leaked document that the troubled municipality has just over R15.8 million in cash, however, R8.8 million of this amount is in the primary bank account of the municipality and the remaining R7.5 million is in the investment account held by Absa.

“Based on the fact that we cannot process any transaction of the FNB account, which is the account we use to make payments, we approached the Xhariep District Municipality to assist us with the payment of salaries for March 2023. Council has resolved that we should redeem R3.5 million from the investment account to pay salaries. The instructions to redeem funds have been made to Absa bank, however, there is a slight delay as the investment team from Absa is consulting their legal team on whether they would not be contravening any legislation if they transfer from our investment account to that of another municipality, as such the investment hasn't been redeemed yet. The salary transfer files are ready and awaiting the redemption of investment from Absa,” Masekoane said.

In July 2022, the Letsemeng Local Municipality’s account was in arrears with R119.7 million. According to Eskom’s Stefanie van Rensburg, Letsemeng's overdue debt on their bulk account as of the end of February 2023 was R142 million.

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