The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has criticised the Emfuleni Local Municipality for allegedly spending R12 million on four service providers for grave-digging between the 2022 and 2025 financial years.
The party’s Member of the Provincial Legislature, Kingsol Chabalala, says the information was revealed by Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance (COGTA) Jacob Mamabolo in a written response at the provincial legislature.
“The financially strained Emfuleni Local Municipality has spent almost R12 million on four service providers for grave-digging between 2022 and 2025, despite having a Parks and Recreation Department resourced with staff capable of performing this function. The DA in Gauteng demands an end to this ongoing irresponsible spending and the utilisation of existing staff to prevent the municipality from incurring unnecessary additional costs.”
Chabalala says grave-digging should be done by municipality’s employees.
“The squandering of millions of rands on external service providers for tasks like grave-digging is unjustifiable. These tasks do not require specialised skills and should be handled internally instead by those already employed by the municipality.”
