Pretoria – The Mayor of Tshwane Randall Williams has been partially cleared by an investigation into possible wrongdoing regarding the “Kratos proposal”.
The governing multi-party coalition made up of the Democratic Alliance (DA), ActionSA, F Plus, African Christian Democratic Party, Congress of the People and Inkatha Freedom Party met Saturday to consider the outcome of the probe into the matter.
“The investigation report came to the view that the proposal did not constitute procurement and therefore no alleged breaches of the MFMA [Municipal Finance Management Act] were concluded to have taken place,” said a statement released by the coalition after the meeting.
However, the report concluded that a case exists to be answered for in terms of Mayor Williams’ instructions to municipal officials being potentially outside the scope of his authority – in violation of the code of conduct of councilors, and in breach of the council-approved system of delegations.
In that matter, the statement said Mayor Wiliams will refer himself to the Speaker and ActionSA has committed to lodging its complaint with the Speaker simultaneously.
Additionally, the consideration of the alleged breach of the coalition agreement was referred for further investigation with the coalition structure.
The Kratos proposal sought to drive industrialisation in Tshwane through three different yet interrelated projects.
The proposal speaks to the development of an iron ore processing plant, agricultural production facilities for bio-methane and hydrogen gas, and the use of both gas and exhaust emissions to drive turbines to produce clean energy.
This will reduce the carbon footprint of Tshwane and allow the City to earn carbon credits, which will be an additional revenue stream for the municipality.
The proposal commits to creating 36 000 sustainable jobs over five years.
However, earlier this year in August the DA and ActionSA had divergent views on the lawfulness of Mayor Williams’ actions regarding his handling of the Kratos proposal.
The Coalition Oversight Group resolved that the matter be investigated by the Speaker of the council.
The investigation addressed the conduct of the mayor as it related to both the lawfulness of his actions as well as his adherence to the coalition agreement.
In the meantime, Williams continues with his mayoral duties.
