Mayor and city manager ‘must quit’
Tshwane mayor and city manager should resign after allegedly causing the city to go bankrupt on failed contracts.
Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa should quit after the “fiasco” with the city’s smart prepaid electricity meters, the Democratic Alliance (DA) demanded on Wednesday.
DA councillor Lex Middelberg said city manager Jason Ngobeni should also go.
The two of them had caused the metro to waste millions of rands on the interrupted installation of the smart prepaid meters, he said.
“It is the DA‘s attitude that losing R2 billion of public money is not acceptable nor excusable under any circumstances. It is not the first time that the mayor’s judgement has failed him.”
The metro announced on Tuesday that the roll-out of smart prepaid meters had been halted.
It said it had terminated the metering contract with service provider PEU with immediate effect.
The move was largely based on the negative financial and economic impact of the project on the city, said metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba.
Middelberg said the mayor lost another R160 million last year on the failed Dinokeng Music Festival.
“Neither the mayor nor the city manager are worthy of the public’s trust after yet another fiasco with the smart prepaid meters.”
DA provincial leader John Moodey contended Tshwane was going bankrupt.
“The attachment of their assets recently indicates that the city has major financial problems as it is unable to pay creditors. We cannot afford to continue to have such losses to the tune of billions of rands.”
This hampered service delivery and denied people the opportunity of a better living environment and standard of living, said Moodey.
At a news briefing at the DA offices in Sunnyside on Wednesday, he said the metro had a cash-flow problem on a daily basis because of poor financial management.
“The people do not care where the money comes from and how it should be used as it is not their own money. Such abuse is happening because there are no consequences,” Moodey said.
“We see it happening and it will continue to happen until the voters see things differently.”
Middelberg said the contract between the metro and PEU Capital Partners and Total Utilities Management Services (TUMS) for the smart prepaid meter installation, was terminated in March already and not on Tuesday.
This was proven in letters and leaked information the DA had obtained.
The contract between TUMS and the city was terminated after the city lost about R830 million rands on the installation of smart prepaid meters.
“The agreed contract exit penalty between the two parties is in a form of continued ‘service fee’ which will be payable over two years. The fee amounts it about R1.242 billion and is to acquire the smart prepaid metering infrastructure that has already been installed, and the metro will pay PEU the market value thereof,” said Middelberg.
He said the payment to exit the contract amounted to eight times the money that was spent to upgrade President Jacob Zuma’s private home in Nkandlas, Kwazulu-Natal.
“With this I have no doubt that he contract is totally fraud,” said Middelberg.
“The city manager and the mayor will be held accountable for the loss and city manager Ngobeni will be held liable unnecessary expenditure and his assets could be seized to pay off the money.”
Also read: Suggestions for the mayor
Abrupt end to smart electricity meters
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 072 435 7717.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
