TALKS ON SEIZED ELM VEHICLES – BUT CONTINGENCY PLANNING PREVENTS SERVICE DISRUPTION
High-level talks are expected this week between ELM Municipal Manager Yunus Chamda and lawyers for the pension fund whose “old legacy litigation” resulted in 31 council vehicles being seized last week and payments of R15million being made by the authority.
But proactive contingency planning by Chamda is said to have prevented service delivery interruptions after the vehicles were seized following a high court finding on an old dispute between ELM and the South African Local Authority (SALA) pension scheme.
The vehicles were reportedly seized by the Vanderbijlpark sheriff between Wednesday and Friday last week.
ELM sources told Vaalweekblad that Chamda and SALA lawyers would meet this week to “resolve an unfortunate legacy issue going back many years”
“We are close to resolving it. We have paid the full capital amount. We are just resolving on the interest amount,” the source said.
The issue was also not one of withholding contributions but an issue on the legality on the rate of contribution, said the source.
“Service delivery was fortunately not hampered due to the foresight of Municipal Manager Chamda and his team.
“But this matter has really blown up because the sheriff was uncooperative despite our clear intention to settle the matter amicably and expeditiously and paying over the R15million in two payments,” another ELM source informed Vaalweekblad.
