Mayorless Tshwane coalition to defend three more motions

In addition to dealing with the resignation of its Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor Randall Williams, the multi-party coalition in the City of Tshwane is facing three more motions that may disrupt key leadership positions if successful.

Williams announced his resignation on 13 January, cryptically stating that he took the step “in the best interest for continued stability of the coalition in the city”.

Read: Tshwane’s mayor resigns

The coalition currently holds 50% of the seats in council. It consists of the DA (69), ActionSA (19), Freedom Front Plus (17), African Christian Democratic Party (2) and Cope (1).

While ActionSA was very vocal in its criticism of Williams’s handling of the unsolicited Kratos Energy bid for the refurbishment of the city’s Rooiwal and Pretoria-West power stations late last year and said he must go, the coalition later seemed to close ranks.

This came against the backdrop of successful motions of no confidence in the DA mayors in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni that resulted in the multi-party coalitions in those cities losing power to their opposition, including the ANC.

The multi-party coalition in Tshwane at that stage decided against any action against Williams, apart from asking the Speaker, Dr Murunwa Makwarela (Cope), to investigate Williams for allegedly interfering with the city’s administration unlawfully. Makwarela has not yet reported his findings.

When the Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke in January issued an adverse opinion on the city’s financial statements, expressing her doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern, the coalition partners initially demanded “political consequences”, but failed to act against Williams.

Read:
City of Tshwane no longer a going concern – AG
Multiparty coalition to meet Tshwane leaders about adverse audit opinion

ActionSA’s Tshwane caucus leader Derrick Kissoonduth however criticised Williams for failing to take his coalition partners into his confidence about the findings. “We learnt about it in the media.”

Williams immediately placed the blame for the poor audit outcomes on former CFO Umar Banda, and the coalition indicated that it bought the excuse.

But forensic auditor Robert Cameron-Ellis, who chairs the city’s independent audit and performance committee (APC), blasted that notion out of the water.

He told council that the APC has been warning consecutive administrations for five years about weak internal controls, but the warnings fell on deaf ears.

Motions of no confidence planned

Over the weekend it became known that seven minority parties, grouped together in the minor parties’ caucus, will bring motions of no confidence in Williams as well as chief whip of council Christo van den Heever and all chairs of the Section 79 committees.

They will also bring a motion to ask for an investigation into the conduct of city manager Johann Mettler.

The investigation will, among other things, focus on Mettler’s conduct with regard to the suspension and purported firing of Banda and the settlement later reached with him to facilitate his departure from the city.

The parties are the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Pan African Congress (PAC), Defenders of the People (DOP), Republican Conference of Tshwane, African Transformation Movement (ATM), African Independent Congress (AIC) and Good.

Secret ballot?

Lex Middelberg, the only representative of the Republican Conference in Tshwane, which brought the motions of no confidence in Williams and Van den Heever, asked for a secret ballot led by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

That would open the door for members of the multi-party coalition to vote in favour of the motions.

While Williams seemingly pre-empted the motion of no confidence against him and jumped before he could be voted out, the other motions will proceed, Middelberg said.

Makwarela earlier confirmed that the motions are competent but may only be tabled after a notice period of 15 days. According to Middelberg this will be done at a special council meeting on 8 March.

Council will however meet before that, on 15 February, for a special meeting to rescind its approval of the APC report that dealt with the AG’s adverse findings.

Makwarela confirmed that the report that was approved during the council meeting on 26 January was not the final APC report. Cameron-Ellis wrote to him to bring it to his attention, and Makwarela said it must be rectified urgently as it is an annexure to the city’s annual report that must be published for public comment.

This, according to Makwarela, happened after the wrong version of the AG’s report was initially included in the council agenda for the meeting in January, and had to be replaced a day before the meeting.

It is not yet clear when the council will elect a new mayor.

Williams initially indicated that his resignation was effective from midnight on 13 February, but then said he would serve until 28 February.

Makwarela was locked in meetings and it is not yet clear what his view is regarding when the resignation takes effect.