TimesLIVE reports that employees at the West Rand District municipality on the outskirts of Johannesburg have been left in the lurch after not having been paid their salaries.  

The municipality informed employees on Friday in writing that they would not receive their salaries as expected on that day.  The municipality was supposed to have received money from the co-operative governance and traditional affairs department (Cogta), but was informed about a "technical glitch”.  The problem was supposed to have been sorted out by last Wednesday, but on Friday the municipality received an e-mail from the National Treasury "indicating a change in dates for receipt of transfers, the cumulative effect being that municipalities will not receive their Equitable Allocations due to the cash flow situation of national treasury".  The municipality has 458 employees and is the same local authority where officials were held hostage at the end of October 2018 after salaries were not paid.  It was reported in October 2018 that the municipality had invested R77m in VBS Mutual Bank.  The DA's Gauteng premier candidate, Solly Msimanga, on Sunday called the situation "unacceptable" and called on Gauteng premier David Makhura to intervene.

• Read the full original of the report by Nico Gous on this story at TimesLIVE

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