The financially crippled Emfuleni Local Municipality has once again come under fierce criticism, this time for allegedly spending almost R12 million on grave-digging contracts between 2022 and 2025, despite having municipal staff capable of doing the job.
According to a written response by Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Jacob Mamabolo, Emfuleni appointed four private companies, Busines Eneriso, Luselo and Seithuto JV, and Downtown Spares, to provide grave-digging services. The total cost of the contracts amounted to R11,257,043.13.
The written reply, dated 12 September 2025, seen by African Times revealed that the municipality paid R693 per adult grave, R575 for re-openings, and R462 for child graves during the three-year period.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has condemned the move as “irresponsible, wasteful and potentially corrupt”, arguing that the municipality continues to outsource basic manual labour while its Parks and Recreation Department remains underutilised.
“The squandering of millions of rand on external service providers for tasks like grave-digging is unjustifiable,” said DA Member of the Provincial Legislature Kingsol Chabalala, who represents Emfuleni North. “These tasks do not require specialised skills and should be done by the municipality’s own employees.
This reflects poor financial management and a failure of leadership, both of which have become synonymous with Emfuleni.”
Chabalala accused the municipality of double-dipping and said the pattern of wasteful outsourcing has persisted for years.
“Earlier this year, MEC Mamabolo confirmed that Emfuleni had already spent more than R15 million over five financial years paying external service providers for grass-cutting and graveyard maintenance. Now, instead of learning from its mistakes, the municipality continues down the same reckless path.”
The DA said the scandal once again exposes the depth of dysfunction within Emfuleni — one of Gauteng’s most troubled municipalities.
“It’s disgraceful that funds are flowing to private companies while residents are forced to live with sewage leaks, crumbling roads and ten-year electricity blackouts,” Chabalala said. “Emfuleni should be learning from municipalities like Midvaal, where fiscal discipline and internal capacity drive service delivery.”
He added that the DA will push for a full investigation into the contracts, including the responsibilities of existing municipal staff and the possible links between officials and service providers.
Meanwhile, Parliament’s Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Human Settlements and Water & Sanitation in August this year expressed serious concern about the state of affairs in Emfuleni.
Committee chairperson Mxolisi Kaunda recently condemned the municipality’s financial and operational failures, citing the closure of Emfuleni’s client service centre due to unpaid rent as a major red flag.
“The closure of the client service centre negatively impacts the municipality’s ability to collect rates and taxes, a key source of municipal revenue,” Kaunda said. “This inability to collect revenue will have an unintended negative impact on delivering quality services to residents.”
Kaunda said the committee’s recent oversight visit found severe governance and financial control failures, which have worsened service delivery across Emfuleni.
“The municipality continues to face the attachment of its bank accounts by service providers such as Eskom and Rand Water due to non-payment. While it is not sustainable that these accounts are attached, it is equally unsustainable that Emfuleni fails to pay for services,” Kaunda said.
He urged both the municipality and the Gauteng provincial government to develop a focused and deadline-driven plan to address the crisis.
“Residents of Emfuleni deserve better basic services in line with the objects of local government as set out in Section 152 of the Constitution,” Kaunda added.
Emfuleni, which covers areas such as Vanderbijlpark, Sebokeng and Evaton, has long been regarded as a symbol of municipal failure. It has been under partial administration since 2018, yet remains crippled by debt, political interference, and poor management.
Despite multiple interventions by the Gauteng Provincial Government, Emfuleni’s performance continues to deteriorate. The municipality’s financial woes have led to repeated electricity cuts, sewage overflows, and decaying infrastructure.
Local civic activists say the R12 million grave-digging contracts are just another sign that the municipality has lost all sense of priority.
“They can’t fix streetlights or patch potholes, but they somehow find money for private grave-diggers,” said a Sebokeng community leader who asked not to be named. “People here are being buried by corruption, both figuratively and literally.”
The DA says it will continue to hold the municipality and COGTA accountable through the Gauteng Provincial Legislature. The party plans to table additional questions to determine why municipal workers were sidelined and whether the contracts were irregular.
“We will not allow Emfuleni to continue as a playground for politically connected tenderpreneurs,” Chabalala said. “Premier Panyaza Lesufi and MEC Mamabolo cannot keep blaming the municipality — they are responsible for ensuring accountability and good governance.”
He said a DA-led Gauteng government would prioritise empowering municipal workers to perform essential functions such as grave-digging, cleaning, and maintenance, ensuring that funds are redirected to critical infrastructure and job creation.
African Times contacted the municipality for a comment, however at the time of print there was no response.
For many in the community, this latest scandal cements Emfuleni’s reputation as a graveyard of good governance, where accountability is dead, and corruption thrives among the ruins of service delivery.
