By: Sello Theletsane
In a statement on Friday, the Patriotic Alliance (PA) called for Tshwane executive mayor Randall Williams to step down.
Williams, from the Democratic Alliance, leads a coalition government that includes ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, the IFP, ACDP, and Cope.
The PA is in a coalition government with these parties in Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg, but not in Tshwane.
Charles Cilliers, the PA’s head of strategy and negotiations, said that the PA shared the concerns of other parties around Williams’ conduct.
“It is obvious, based on the leaked audio from a meeting between mayor Williams, his advisory team, and the city’s administrators, that Williams either does not understand the limits of his powers as a mayor or has chosen to ignore them. Either way, he should not be a mayor,” said Cilliers.
ActionSA intends to lay a complaint of violating the Municipal Finance Management Act with the public protector, while the ANC has said it intends to do the same.
The matter relates to an unsolicited bid received from a consortium called Kratos Energy, which intends to spend tens of billions to put Tshwane’s two derelict power stations back into service, primarily by using biogas. The project, if approved, will also see Iscor’s defunct steel plant becoming operational again in order to create pig iron.
Cilliers said: “It is only too obvious that [Williams] is interfering directly in a procurement matter by directly instructing his city’s officials on how to handle the unsolicited multibillion-rand bid proposal from Kratos Energy. Even if one accepts the mayor’s view that he only wants to boost the economy of the city and create jobs, the law is clear about how unsolicited bids should be handled, and the mayor must play only an oversight and strategic role.”
Cilliers said it is the responsibility of the city manager and his team to be part of the bidding process in any municipality.
“They are the accounting officers, not the mayor. Elected officials are legally meant to stay out of such a process.”
He said that if an ANC mayor had openly advocated for any company to be given a multibillion-rand deal, “the DA would have been screaming about it from the rooftops, but instead, they have chosen to defend the deal and even insult coalition partners who have questioned the process”.
He said the DA as a party, therefore, stood accused with Williams and needed to do deep introspection.
“The Kratos proposal has merit, but it can surely not be the only possible solution for how to reactivate the city’s power stations. Opening up the process for other possible proposals to be made will underline the solution that is finally arrived at as a competitive one,” he said.
