Emfuleni municipality
Willy Bila appointed new administrator for troubled Emfuleni Municipality
Willy Bila is the current director general of the provincial Cooperative Governance Department.
Last week, the Sheriff of the Court seized property worth hundreds of millions of rand for non-payment to the power utility.
This was part of the Vaal River Rehabilitation Project, which kicked off last year after the river was polluted by raw sewage from pump stations in the Emfuleni Municipality.
The Emfuleni Municipality says the explosion on Tuesday was caused by a faulty feeder cable from the industrial area.
Reverend Gift Moerane, who was inaugurated on Thursday, says he is aware of the massive service delivery challenges that the people of Emfuleni are facing.
Municipal officials will visit affected areas today to assess the damage caused by the flooding.
The party has called for fresh polls, saying the governing African National Congress (ANC) has collapsed the municipality.
In June, Gauteng Premier David Makhura announced intervention plans to help rescue the cash-strapped Emfuleni Municipality.
Eskom has confirmed that this is the only Gauteng municipality which will experience power outages soon due to a lack of payment.
Premier David Makhura announced his decision to place the metro under administration, saying it cannot fulfil its executive obligations.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura says the municipality has been facing major economic, financial and service delivery problems.
Residents have been without water since Saturday when the electric cable used to pump water out to consumers was stolen.
The water disruptions started almost a week ago, on the day that a R200 million bill was due to be paid.
The municipality failed to honour its agreement with the utility on Friday, only paying 88% of its R200 million bill, resulting in water being cut off to residents.
For days now residents have been without water as the municipality failed to honour its debt last month.
The municipality has now reached an agreement with Rand Water around how to settle its debt to ensure the water supply is restored later on Tuesday.
Mayor Jacob Khawe has met with Rand Water to discuss how best to settle the debt owed to the water board which now runs into the billions of rands.
Residents in parts of Vereeniging are pleading with the Emfuleni municipality to immediately restore water supply to thousands of households amid a heatwave in Gauteng. Several areas have been hit by water cuts because the municipality failed to honour its payment to Rand Water.
Several areas have been hit by water cuts because the municipality failed to honour its payment arrangement with Rand Water.