Tshwane House development in doubt as DA lays criminal charges
Charges of fraud and vote-rigging have been laid against the Tshwane metro
Charges of fraud and vote-rigging have been laid against the Tshwane metro
Democratic Alliance (DA) Chief Whip Marita Aucamp revealed this at council’s first monthly meeting of the year. She said the charges related to the controversial Tshwane House municipal headquarters project.
They were laid at Pretoria Central police station.
The DA contends a special council meeting last month to approve the Tshwane House project did not have a quorum, rendering the decision invalid. The party claims that some of the names on the attendance register have been added in a fraudulent fashion to manufacture a quorum.
The council resolution allows the municipal manager to sign a public participation partnership agreement (PPP) for the development of the Tshwane House project.
The ruling party maintains that the council’s rules and ethics committee was correct in deciding that the unruly December meeting was legitimate and valid.
The DA opposed the Tshwane House development for being wasteful and ostentatious. It objected to the short notice given of an unnecessary urgent meeting to approve the project.
The DA and members of the Congress of the People (Cope) and the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) walked out of the December meeting in protest.
This was after the acting Speaker refused to allow the project managers and technical consultants to make a presentation to council and to answer questions about the project – even though the mayor had ordered the presentation and that the presenters were available and ready to make their presentations.
Unbeknownst to the African National Congress (ANC), the DA and the other opposition parties had counted the number of ANC councillors present before they walked out and had verified from the attendance register that only 96 councillors remained in council, while 106 were required for a quorum.
On the strength of this knowledge the DA, Cope and the FF+ left the council meeting to force the issue to be postponed to at least the January meeting of council.
They argued that more time would then be available to consider the complex contracts and feasibility study of a project that would be funded at ratepayers’ expense to the tune of a net present value of R 4.8bn over a contract term of 27 years, according to the report tabled in council.
Despite the fact that the opposition parties had left the meeting, the ANC continued and approved the project with an alleged vote of 106 of the 96 councillors present voting in favour.
Said DA councillor Lex Middelberg: “We have no doubt that only 96 councillors were left in the council chamber after we left with the other opposition parties, because I personally counted them and came to the same figure as a number of my colleagues who also counted and who inspected the signed attendance register.”
When DA councillor Bronwynn Engelbrecht tried to photograph the register with her mobile phone for evidential purposes, officials grabbed the register from her, he said.
Rekord was told when the Speaker became aware that Siobhan Muller and he had taken up seats in the public gallery, she ordered them to leave without any legal grounds.
“We only left at that stage because we had already re-counted the councillors present from our vantage point in the gallery and had again confirmed that only 96 councillors remained in the chamber. We opposed the Tshwane House project because we did not accept the alleged R4.8bn net present value of the project,” said Middelberg.
“This disputed valuation would make this development the most expensive building project in South Africa ever. In addition, none of the pre-requisite requirements of the PPP regulations of the MFMA has been complied with.”
He said it was the opposition party’s view that the contract for the project, irrespective of the outcome of the meeting of December 2014, was itself illegal and that any developer should be cautioned to consider the legal ramifications of the contract.
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