Emfuleni municipality says it is yet to confirm if ANC ward councillor Andries Lekeletsane unduly benefitted from not paying for municipal services for seven years.
This is despite Lekeletsane confirming to Sowetan on Tuesday that he had not paid for municipal services since he started working as the ward councillor for ward 39 in Evaton, south of Joburg, in 2016.
Sowetan also showed the municipality Lekeletsane’s account statement showing that the councillor had been receiving an indigent subsidy for water services and waste collection. The subsidy is meant for poor families whose monthly income is below R3,500.
As a councillor, Lekeletsane earns about R40,000 a month.
On Thursday municipality spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni said Lekeletsane would only be called next week to state his case. He said the municipality was yet to verify through its system how Lekeletsane ended up in the indigent register.
“The speaker [Sibongile Soxuza] said they would call him (Lekeletsane) and speak to him so they can know what is happening and they will take it from there. The meeting with him will take place sometime next week when the speaker is not busy,” said Sangweni.
“Should they find that he has a case to answer, the matter will be referred to the ethics committee. Soxuza will ask the councillor questions during the meeting to hear from him,” he said.
Lekeletsane told Sowetan two days ago that he had not been paying for electricity, water usage, and waste collection as he received an indigent subsidy for the services in his municipal account.
He said he had no possession of a title deed of the Evaton house he moved into in 2008 and insisted that he never applied to be placed on the indigent register.
“Remember that it’s a technical issue here, that’s why this is happening. If you don’t have a title deed, it means you cannot be billed. The issuing of title deeds is not the responsibility of Emfuleni as a municipality, we get them from provincial and national responsibility,” Sangweni said.
Emfuleni is one of the poorly run municipalities in Gauteng, which has been struggling to collect revenue from customers and has been indebted to both Eskom and Rand Water. In December Eskom said Emfuleni owed R5.7bn resulting in its bank accounts being frozen.
The councillor also admitted to Sowetan that most residents in the area did not have title deeds which are linked to municipal accounts. He said when he moved into the area most residents did not pay for municipal services.
“We will investigate and check if there are any councillors who fall under the same category so that this can be avoided next time.
“The ethics committee is like a disciplinary hearing for councillors, so I am not sure if he will be ordered to pay back the money or be removed from his position. We will hear from there what the step is taken,” he said.
Lekeletsane alleges that he took this matter up with the municipality’s rates and taxes about a month ago, where he gave them his ID number and asked them to check, and he was told that he was not linked to any address in the system and that he had no account with the municipality.
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