As City of Tshwane mayor Randall Williams faces a motion of no confidence today, his coalition partners have pledged their support for him.
The DA's coalition partners ActionSA, FF+, IFP, COPE and ACDP vowed to vote against the ANC's planned motion of no confidence.
Williams faces allegations of interfering in the city’s supply chain management processes after a leaked audio recording of a meeting last year between himself and senior officials regarding an alleged unsolicited bid.
In the recording, Williams is heard speaking to senior Tshwane officials advocating for the metro to advertise and go to public participation after the city was approached to lease municipal land.
Williams will be subjected to an independent investigation as agreed by the coalition partners. This investigation is expected to be completed in 60 days where it will be presented to them before being made public.
ActionSA Gauteng provincial chair Bongani Baloyi told Sowetan the party still believed in the things they had said, adding nothing had changed on their side.
“We’ll not be voting for the motion against Williams. We’ll vote against the motion while continuing the independent investigation. It was commissioned by the multiparty government. We’ll wait for the allegations to be tested by that investigation,” Baloyi said.
Just last week, Baloyi told a room full of journalists that ActionSA would lobby other partners to remove Williams as mayor but this week he said they would wait for the outcome of the investigation.
ACDP Gauteng leader Bishop Dalton Adams said the party's councillors in Tshwane had raised some red flags when the allegations against Williams came to light.
“As the ACDP, after listening to him [Williams], we felt it was important for an independent investigation be instated.
“That investigation gives him 60 days to be cleared and, if not, for the DA to recall him.
“We’ll vote against the motion for now and then after 60 days we’ll revisit our position based on the outcome of the investigation.
“It’s very risky for us as a coalition if it comes out and there was maleficence and bulldozing... but that’s the decision we’re taking for now,” Adams said.
Tshwane has 214 seats and of those multiparty coalition has 109 seats.
The opposition parties which consist of the ANC, EFF, Defenders of the People, Patriotic Alliance, ATM, Good Party and Republican Conference share105 seats. ANC with 69 seats and the EFF with 23 seats would need the support of all parties including some within the coalition for the motion to remove Williams to succeed. .
Meanwhile, DA leader John Steenhuisen said during his update on coalitions in Gauteng that the ANC does not want DA-led multiparty coalitions to work, especially in Gauteng.
In Tshwane, the ANC has submitted a motion of no confidence in Williams, while in Johannesburg its allies, the PAC and the AIC, have done the same to mayor Mpho Phalatse. We understand there are now similar plans afoot for mayor Tania Campbell in Ekurhuleni.
“This is the work of an ANC that finds itself cut off from its entire patronage network in these Gauteng metros. As a result it now cannot fund its own operation or pay its own staff, not to mention the blow this has dealt to the lavish lifestyles many of its members have become accustomed to.
“It desperately needs to get its hands back in the cash register, and it will stop at nothing in its efforts to do so. These co-ordinated attacks on our mayors — and also our speakers — are nothing short of a coup attempt by the corrupt,” Steenhuisen said.
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