By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and it’s coalition partners have agreed to a 60-day independent investigation to probe Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams and city of Tshwane officials’ handling of an unsolicited R26 billion power supply investment proposal.
The proposal will no longer be considered as part of unsolicited bid but will now form part of a competitive bidding process, a call previously made by the DA’s coalition partner ActionSA, the EFF and ANC.
Williams will now face an investigation and following an agreement between coalition partners, any bid to remove him will be prevented from succeeding by the coalition at Tshwane’s council.
With ActionSA’s by-in any motion of no confidence brought by the ANC is unlikely to succeed without its support.
This comes as the ANC has indicated that it will submit a motion of no confidence in Williams, which is expected to be debated by the council on Thursday.
Although smaller parties aligned to the DA are unlikely to vote with the ANC should the motion go to a vote, coalition insiders have indicated that they will abstain from voting, a move that will be considered a no confidence vote in Williams and the party by its allies.
The EFF has not yet decided whether it will add its vote to the removal of Williams. The party opened a case against Williams for his influence in the pending contract. It has attributed a collapse in service delivery in Tshwane to what it says is his misconduct and has called for his immediate resignation.
Williams has become a target of political parties after his bid to have the council pass a motion for a forensic report into an unsolicited bid from a company that offered to refurbish and maintain two power stations in Tshwane.
The proposal was for Kratos Energy to refurbish two power stations that have not been operating since 2014 and turn them into gas energy supply networks. Williams argued that this would help generate 800 megawatts of electricity to help ease the effects of load-shedding.
ActionSA did not agree with the report and objected to it being adopted and forwarded for public comment.
ActionSA Gauteng provincial chairperson Bongani Baloyi labelled the proposal “illegal” and a representation of the bad governance that “multi-party coalitions sought to displace when taking office”.