Randall Williams' future as mayor of the City of Tshwane hangs in the balance following threats by the ANC to table a motion of no confidence against him at the next council sitting.
The threats have been made all the more serious following ActionSA's stance that Williams was a problem for the coalition in the city, adding they will lobby other coalition partners to discuss his removal as mayor.
Both ActionSA and the ANC have accused Williams of interfering in the city's supply chain management process relating to the proposal of a R26bn energy contract.
However, ActionSA provincial leader Bongani Baloyi emphasised the party was still committed to the DA-led multi-party coalition government in Tshwane.
“We do not have a coalition problem; we have a Randall Williams problem. We feel obligated to lay a complaint before the office of the public protector because we are in possession of evidence that needs to be assessed.
“While affirming our commitment to this coalition, and the DA’s holding of the mayoralty affirmed in the agreement, ActionSA will in the coming days debate the question of whether Randall Williams can continue to serve as mayor of Tshwane.
“Consistent with our commitment to this coalition, we will address this question within the multi-party coalition structures,” Baloyi said.
In a leaked audio recording which surfaced earlier this week, Williams was heard speaking with senior officials in a meeting discussing a proposal of an unsolicited energy tender.
He argues the city should take the bid for public participation.
This meeting has sowed divisions within the Tshwane coalition, threatening to destabilise it.
The meeting took place sometime last year where Williams tells several officials, including chief operations officer James Murphy and acting city manager Mmaseabata Mutlaneng not to question but implement whatever decision the executive takes.
Williams was allegedly approached by an Australian-based company about a 30-year lease of the city-owned Rooiwal and the Pretoria West power substations.
Williams is said to have spoken of a private consortium comprised of multiple companies that came together to offer a package of revamping the aged power stations which would add 800MW of power to Tshwane's grid.
Just like the City of Johannesburg, Tshwane has been looking at energy alternatives and possible partnerships with independent power producers.
In the recording, Williams says: “In a municipality there’s an executive authority and then you have the administration. It’s the role of executive authority to take strategic decisions and the role of the administration is to implement those decisions whether they agree or disagree with that decision.
“The administration doesn’t have the right to oppose a decision taken by the executive. The only people that can oppose the executive’s decision are people that have stood for public office and find themselves in council as public representatives.”
Williams further told the officials that the metro was in “deep financial trouble”, advocating the move would assist the city with its revenue.
During the meeting, Murphy raised concerns the proposal did not meet the unsolicited bid requirements while also stressing the need for the city to conduct its own due diligence.
“The only problem I had from day one was, guys is this really ticking all the boxes of an unsolicited bid. I’d read the 2016, 2019 framework just to make sure it ticks boxes.
“My worry was someone else has done due diligence on this. How do you just take someone else’s figures and advertise it without doing due diligence. I’m saying allow us to do due diligence because there are a number of mistakes in the summary documents that they gave and we advised them to go fix ABC and D.
“If they’re so confident about their product and what they present why are they so scared of going on a two-stage bidding process?” he questioned.
Murphy added that National Treasury had initially rejected the proposal.
However, Williams maintained no decision would be made on the unsolicited bid until supporting documents that include the unsolicited bid documents, the advert of the bid including public comments had been submitted to National Treasury.
Williams on Thursday told Sowetan that the allegations against him were “blatantly false”, adding that he would address them at a media briefing on Friday.
LEAKED | Tshwane mayor taped pushing officials to go ahead with ‘illegal’ tender
ANC regional secretary in Tshwane George Matjila announced on Thursday that the party would table a motion of no confidence against Williams.
To stand any chance of success, the ANC with 75 seats out of a council of 214 seats, would need the buy-in of ActionSA, which has 19 seats and the EFF with its 23 seats.
Currently, Tshwane is governed through a multi-party coalition government consisting of the DA — 69, ActionSA — 19, ACDP — 2, FF Plus — 17, COPE -1 and IFP — 1 who have a combined 109 seats.
ActionSA’s bone of contention was since there had been no consensus on the proposed project by the multi-party coalition and Williams’ interference in procurement, Williams should go.
EFF regional chairperson Obakeng Ramabodu said the party would only support the ANC’s motion if it had the buy-in of ActionSA.
“The EFF has always been clear that this mayor is incompetent, not fit to run this city and delivered nothing since he was elected. The EFF would support the motion but we want to be politically smart about it.
“We must engage ActionSA because they’re also not happy with Williams. Provided the numbers are there then we’ll support the motion,” Ramabodu said.
In the leaked audio, officials forewarned Williams there were political ramifications for the mayor.
Murphy is heard saying: “In this discussion here I know what your roles and responsibilities are. I’m really just protecting you. I’m telling you right now that this is a supply chain management process at the end of the day. This discussion has never taken place.”
Another official only known as Steven can be heard warning Williams against involving himself in procurement processes.
“The fact that you’ve seen it is already a problem. It sounds like you’ve read it, that is a problem. There is significant political risk because what we’re proposing is an unsolicited bid on a mature technology, not a unique technology and it’s also not a unique funding mechanism.
“This will result in higher electricity cost for 30 years... The political risk of pushing through a particular project with mature technology has risk for the administration, has risk for you and it has to be said in such words from my perspective... politically there is a risk with what is happening in this room right now,” Steven is heard cautioning.
nkosin@sowetan.co.za
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