Pretoria - The ANC in Pretoria has expressed its intention to join forces with other political parties in council in a bid to topple mayor Randall Williams through a motion of no confidence.
Addressing journalists at Tshwane House yesterday, party regional secretary George Matjila said the ANC would engage “think-alike parties in council” to support a call to remove Williams.
The party’s stance against Williams was made known a week after a leaked Auditor-General’s (AG) adverse audit report for 2021/2022, issued against the City of Tshwane.
Matjila said the report meant the ANC was vindicated for its “long-held view that the DA-led coalition is incompetent, corrupt and lacks ability to lead the capital city”.
The ANC, he said, would encourage the Gauteng Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to institute Section 139 (5) of the Constitution as a remedy effective immediately.
“We will also write to Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, on the water crisis in both Hammanskraal and Bronkhorstspruit. We need to look at implementing Section 63 of the Water Service Act. We need the national government’s intervention on this historic and difficult task of providing clean and safe water in those communities.”
He lambasted the decision to oust former chief financial officer (CFO) Umar Banda, saying he was unlawfully fired and that the party caucus would need answers from both Williams and City Manager Johann Mettler when council convened on January 26.
Banda was fired by Mettler on December 2, and his court bid to overturn the decision was dismissed by the High Court in Pretoria.
The Auditor-General’s adverse audit report arose from the City’s disastrous financial management, including an irregular expenditure of R10.4 billion and fruitless and wasteful expenditure understated by R1bn.
The report was characterised by a failure by the City to properly account for its multibillion-rand budget. Also highlighted as a major problem was the City’s quality of financial reporting, which was not in accordance with the standards of Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (Grap).
The municipality, for example, did not correctly account for unauthorised expenditure incurred in the current year as required by section 125(2)(d) of the MFMA. “This resulted in unauthorised expenditure being understated by R646 593 600,” the report said.
Assets worth more than R52bn and more than R800 million was not properly accounted for leave payments. The report further flagged the supply chain management deviations of more than R480m without reason.
More criticism was levelled against the City for failing to report allegations of fraud and extortion which exceeded R100 000 to the SAPS as required by section 34(1) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
Pretoria News