Pretoria - The Republican Conference of Tshwane has become the latest political party in council to call for embattled mayor Randall Williams to fall on his sword for a bad judgement he made regarding an unsolicited bid proposal valued at R26 billion.
Its sole Tshwane councillor, Lex Middelberg, expressed concerns about news reports that Williams knew Dr Raymond Campbell, South Africa’s face of an Australian company called Kratos Consortium, which is behind the bid proposal.
Middelberg was concerned that the mayor and Campbell “are very close to each other in Lynnwood” where they live.
He said despite allegations that they know each other, Williams never declared any conflict of interest.
Middelberg expressed support for calls for Williams to go based on a bad judgement he made.
“This transaction is not an innocent transaction and if he can’t see that he is either personally involved or does not have a judgement to understand the work that he is doing,” he said.
Middelberg spoke to the Pretoria News before Thursday’s ordinary council sitting where Williams is expected to come under pressure to resign.
Last week Williams tabled a report entailing the proposal to generate power using gas turbines at the two municipal power stations in Rooiwal and Pretoria West.
Political parties such as the ANC, EFF and ActionSA stood opposed to the unsolicited bid, questioning why the City never opted to take it through an open tender system. They further called for Williams’s removal.
Another spanner in the works for the proposed bid was when Williams was implicated in interfering in procurement processes after he was heard in a recording instructing officials to endorse the bid.
Middelberg said he conducted research, which found that the consortium was a small installer of rooftop solar panels in Australia.
“They appear as big solar installers in South Africa, but there is no indication that the directors (on their website) have any experience in gas turbine generation or any history associated with that. They don’t appear to have experience in industrial power generation,” he said.
He added that there was nothing unique about the offer on the table, which prevented it from going through an open tender.
Good party councillor Sarah Mabotsa said the report under the spotlight was ambiguous and worrying because it did not only talk about the public participation process, but also talked about the unsolicited bid.
She said processes for unsolicited bid proposal and public participation cannot run at the same time.
Mabotsa expressed worries about the recording content, saying it revealed that “the mayor was now becoming authoritative to officials to implement the proposal”.
She said her party didn’t go as far as calling for Williams to resign, but “we will see how things progress”.
FF Plus councillor and MMC for Community Safety Grandi Theunissen said his party supported the speaker’s decision to refer the mayor’s alleged involvement in the matter to the council’s rules and ethics committee for thorough investigation. “The FF Plus will take a critical but constructive approach within the coalition in Tshwane Metro council to ensure the best results are achieved for residents.”
Pretoria News