Pretoria - City of Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams has rubbished claims that he was instrumental in securing a R26 billion tender to revamp and operate its Pretoria West and Rooiwal power stations.
Williams’ reaction came after two of his coalition partners in the City of Tshwane had come out to condemn the plan.
The latest coalition partner to do so was the IFP, which said it noted with deep concern the alleged unethical conduct and interferences in supply chain processes regarding the multibillion-rand renewable energy deal.
The IFP said: “While we remain committed to the coalition in Tshwane, we wish to disassociate ourselves from unethical conduct such as that alleged of the executive mayor.
“Such conduct cannot be glanced over as it deeply undermines the principles of good governance and ethical leadership and ultimately displays the worst betrayal of the trust of the people.
“The IFP finds it difficult to continue supporting an individual facing such deplorable allegations.”
The IFP, like ActionSA, is of the view that Williams should step down as mayor until a full and thorough investigation has been conducted into the matter.
Reacting to the allegations, Williams said the decision to bring this report to the special council meeting was not to say it was reached by consensus of the joint caucus in Tshwane.
“The recommendation the mayoral committee made to a special meeting of the Tshwane council last Tuesday was not a tender, and so when ActionSA says that they single-handedly saved the City from being bound by a R26bn tender, it is hoping that nobody will check the details.
“Neither would the R26bn have come from the coffers of the City; this was an offer of private investment. The City does not have R26bn or anything close to it to invest in any single project.
“What we do have are two coal-fired power stations at Pretoria West and Rooiwal that we cannot use, that are effectively dead assets in our hands, and which cost the residents R300 million a year to maintain until we decide what to do with them.
“The recommendation to the municipal council was to solicit public comment on a proposal to lease the land on which these power stations are located to a consortium of private companies who wanted to eventually install gas-fired power plants.
“The recommendation for public participation was step number one in a series of steps that had to be taken in our law before any lease, or any agreement to procure electricity from anyone other than Eskom, could be finalised,” he said.
Williams said in making the recommendation to the municipal council, the mayoral committee had explained in a detailed report what this private consortium had to offer, but they did not pre-empt the outcome of the public participation process or any of the other steps that had to be taken.
He said the consortium approached the City, and their offer was a compelling one – to invest R26bn of private money to build gas-fired turbines that could be used to generate up to 800 megawatts of clean energy independent of Eskom.
“Had the report been approved it would then have required multiple other legislative processes to then be followed once the public participation was concluded.
“The comments would need to be evaluated and assessed and there would need to be a further request for quotations process before a final decision was taken within the City administration.
“The question isn’t why the mayoral committee would bring such a proposal to the municipal council, the question is why any party would stop the first step – the public participation process – from even happening.
“There have been continued allegations made against me of interference or corruption in the administration, all of which are false. As I indicated on Tuesday, this came from a ‘leaked’ recording which is in fact a 90-minute meeting that I had with officials last year to workshop this proposal.
“I welcome any investigation into this matter as I have nothing to hide. The reports are public documents, they can be scrutinised and assessed. The officials in the City can be engaged and we can openly discuss how this matter has taken us a year to engage on,” he said.
The DA’s provincial leadership under Solly Msimanga came out in support of Williams.
Msimanga said his party rejected with contempt the allegations of corrupt activities against Williams and supported the mayor’s commitment to reduce dependence on Eskom as a supplier of electricity and to protect communities against load shedding.
Msimanga said: “The attempts by ActionSA, EFF and the ANC to destabilise and create chaos in the council meeting was nothing more than a co-ordinated ploy to try to score some petty political points.
“Our country’s energy crisis is the result of state capture and collapse and if we don’t take bold steps to mitigate the energy crisis, the DA and coalition governments would be failing in our commitment to voters. That is why we stand behind Mayor Williams and his efforts to take the City of Tshwane into a future with a stable and dependable electricity supply.
“No accountable government can operate like this. Coalition bodies exist to resolve fundamental issues, not to subsume the role of elected local leaders in making local decisions. Coalition governments cannot be run at party headquarters.”
ActionSA has approached the public protector to probe Williams, while the ANC is expected to table a motion of no confidence against the mayor.
Pretoria News