Pretoria - The EFF in Tshwane has asked the SAPS to investigate a possibility that mayor Randall Williams received a bribe from a company implicated in a multibillion rand unsolicited bid proposal to refurbish the municipality’s Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations.
Regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu yesterday lodged an official complaint against Williams at Brooklyn police station for allegedly exerting undue influence on municipal officials by instructing them to implement an unsolicited bid proposal for power generation in the metro.
“We opened a case of corruption and bribery against the mayor. We suspect that that company gave Randall money because he can’t just defend it.
“We want the police to investigate if the company gave him money,” Ramabodu said.
He said the EFF presented the police with an audio recording “to check if the things the mayor is talking about are not things that were meant to force officials to push for his project”.
In the recording, Williams emphasised to officials in a senior management meeting that the City’s executive authority make “executive decisions” and the administration was duty-bound to implement them whether they “agree or disagree” with them.
He could be heard instructing officials to support his executive decision for an unsolicited bid.
Meanwhile, MEC for Human Settlements Lebogang Maile yesterday said he had written to Williams requesting him to respond to allegations of impropriety levelled against him and his office pertaining to an unsolicited bid from an energy service provider.
Maile’s reaction was prompted by media reports alleging the unsolicited bid in question “falls foul of the applicable provisions of the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act and in particular the active role being played by the executive mayor and his office, which may be considered as interference in the supply chain management processes of which the legislation patently prohibits councillors from doing so”.
He said: “The allegations are deemed very serious, with far-reaching ramifications on the integrity and governance of the office of the executive mayor and the municipality and the office of the speaker.
“In this regard, section 106(1)(b) of the Local Government Municipal Systems Act as amended, empowers the MEC responsible for local government in a province to designate a person or persons to conduct an investigation if the MEC has reason to believe a municipality cannot or does not fulfil a statutory obligation binding on that municipality, or that maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice has occurred or is occurring in a municipality.”
Maile asked Williams to provide adequate reasons within seven days as to why the MEC should not discharge his statutory powers in terms of section 106(1)(b) of the Systems Act.
Williams has since taken flak from political parties, which include the ANC, EFF and ActionSA , for interfering in the city’s procurement processes.
The ANC slammed him for “interfering with the supply chain management processes”.
“According to section (118) of the act, no person may (a) interfere with the supply chain management system of a municipality or a municipal entity or (b) amend or tamper with any tenders, quotations, contracts or bids after their submission,” the party said.
ActionSA also condemned Williams’s conduct and called for the mayor to be put under forensic investigation for alleged undue influence on officials.
Williams was expected to table a report into the unsolicited bid of two city-owned power stations during a special council sitting on Tuesday.
He was forced to withdraw after the recording in which he ordered officials to implement his executive decision on the contract surfaced.
In his defence, Williams said the recording was part of a smear campaign against him and threatened to take legal action against those behind the move.
“This dishonest act was disturbing as it came from one of the coalition partners in the city, ActionSA, who are attempting to frame the recording as some indictment against me,” he said.
He said the meeting captured in the recording took place last year.
According to him, the purpose of the meeting was to workshop and brainstorm an investment proposal to repurpose the city’s coal-powered plants which have not been in use since 2014 and convert them to use gas.
He said the intention was to generate 800 megawatts of power over the long term and the estimated amount of direct investment of R26 billion.
Pretoria News