Tshwane mayor Randall Williams no longer fit to be a mayor

19 August 2022

The Patriotic Alliance is not in a formal relationship with the Democratic Alliance and other coalition partners in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, but shares the concerns around the recent conduct of the city's executive mayor, Randall Williams. 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.

It is only too obvious that he 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 and create jobs, the law is clear about how unsolicited bids should be handled, and the mayor must play only an oversight role.

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. Had an ANC mayor so 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. The DA as a party therefore stands accused with Williams and needs 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.

Issued by Charles Cilliers, Head of Strategy and Negotiation, PA, 19 August 2022