DA challenges MEC over ‘R2bn Tshwane allocation’
THE DA has asked Gauteng Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Lebogang Maile to reveal the identities of individuals and entities in the City of Tshwane who were given R2 billion to deal with the water crisis in Hammanskraal.
“There has been no such money allocated to the City of Tshwane since the DA took over in 2016,” said Gauteng DA leader John Moodey, in reaction to allegations by Maile that the city had been allocated R2bn, but had “failed to spend it”.
Yesterday, Maile made the claim when he addressed the media in Sandton. He said National Treasury and the Department of Water and Sanitation were on the verge of retrieving the funds with the aim of spending the money on service-delivery priorities.
Maile also denied that the Gauteng provincial cabinet under Premier David Makhura had any intention to place the City of Tshwane under administration, despite it placing an intervention report in terms of Section 139 (1) read together with Section 154 of the Constitution before the Gauteng Legislature on January 8, which the DA threatened to challenge in court.
Maile has, however, given the City of Tshwane until the end of January to develop a comprehensive plan to deal with “service delivery backlogs”, and until the end of February to resolve the water crisis in the area.
He said the City of Tshwane had to provide him with a report on how it dealt with cases of corruption and maladministration, especially a tender of R12bn awarded to GladAfrica.
When quizzed about alleged acts of corruption during the ANC administration, Maile said those cases should also be investigated and prosecuted.
However, he claimed Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu had only flagged irregular and unauthorised expenditure during the tenure of the DA-led administration.
Moodey said the water crisis in Hammanskraal dated back more than 25 years, and the February deadline was too soon to deal with such a crisis. He said the City of Tshwane had made substantial efforts to deal with the crisis since the DA came to power.
“He (Maile) must tell us over which period the R2bn was allocated to the City of Tshwane. The R2bn could have been accumulated over the years, especially during the ANC administration.”
On the GladAfrica tender, Moodey said: “The A-G flagged it as irregular expenditure. He did not say it was corruption. As a result, the city has terminated the contract and is looking at various means to recover monies from GladAfrica. The city is not sitting on its laurels. It is on a verge of recouping the monies.”
Moodey, however, welcomed the directives as set out by Maile, and said the city had a responsibility to respond to each of them.