ANC Tshwane asks Ramaphosa to get the SIU to probe the DA-run municipality
15 August 2018
The ANC in Tshwane wants the City to be placed under administration and President Cyril Ramaphosa to assign the Special Investigating Unit to probe allegations of looting there since the DA took over in 2016.
These were some of the remedies suggested on Wednesday at a media briefing which the party's newly-elected chairperson Dr Kgosi Maepa and the party's caucus in the council held.
The party leadership expressed "disgust" and sought to expose what it termed "historic capex grand theft by the DA administration".
This is linked to reports in the Sunday Times over the weekend which stated that Municipal Manager Moeketsi Mosola brought in Midrand-based engineering consultancy firm GladAfrica to manage infrastructure projects worth R12bn, despite being advised that doing so was illegal.
Mosola, who held a media briefing ahead of the ANC's address, detailed processes around the deal in an attempt to clear his name, saying that appointing GladAfrica was "in compliance with legislative prescripts governing the City of Tshwane's supply chain management and the Municipal Finance Management Act".
But Maepa read from a statement: "It cannot be business as usual anymore when kleptomaniacs such as these continue to remain at the helm of the City and its departments."
Maepa claimed that the DA-led administration outsourced the City's multi-billion-rand expenditure budget to GladAfrica.
He said, through the tender, GladAfrica became a "middleman", which service providers and those seeking to do business with the City had to go through.
"Bringing in the consultancy has dramatically inflated prices as the consultancy fees are way beyond accepted rates as approved by the Engineering Council of South Africa and the Department of Public Service and Administration," he complained.
He added that this meant the DA-led municipality had done away with a competitive bidding process, which was the norm.
The ANC also shared its views on what it believed should happen to the municipal manager, saying he should be suspended immediately and that it would pursue criminal charges against Mosola.
It also recommended that MEC of Local Government Uhuru Moila should place the municipality under administration.
"The MEC of Local Government in Gauteng must immediately invoke Section 106 (1)(b) [of the Municipal Systems Act]," said Moepa.
This would lead to the setting up of an investigation into allegations of maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractices occurring in a municipality.
The ANC has also said that it would approach the Public Protector to investigate their complaint.
The ANC also wants Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga to step down.
Msimanga, who Moepa called "Mr I Don't Know" and "Mr I Was Not There", was warned against distancing himself from the scandal. The ANC regional chair said Msimanga's job meant he had to play an oversight role.
Msimanga earlier released a statement accusing the ANC of being hypocritical and claiming that investigations into the GladAfrica tender were continuing.
"I again put on record that we are diligently investigating this matter and have been doing so for some time now. I am nevertheless mystified by the ANC's hypocritical call to investigate corruption when it is this DA-led multi-party government [which] has taken several contracts concluded by the previous administration on judicial review," Msimanga said.
He said the ANC has been linked to the West Capital Project, the PEU Smart Meter Project, the Moipone Fleet Contract and the Broadband Contract.
The ANC, however, is yet to give dates for when it plans to take its complaints to both the Public Protector and the police. It has assured journalists that it had uncovered numerous other scandals in the DA-led municipality.
