Victory for Tshwane on Broadband matter
"Finally, the City is no longer bound to bleeding its finances towards an unscrupulous agreement that wasn’t benefiting Tshwane residents."
The city will no longer be bound by an agreement that bled the City finances and not benefiting its residents, it has announced.
Mayoral spokesperson Omogolo Taunyane said the North Gauteng High Court had set aside the build, operate and transfer (BOT) contract with Thobela Telecoms for the Tshwane Broadband Network, including the tripartite agreement on Tuesday.
“This was a resounding victory for the City, she said.
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“This was a case we fought against after the project was approved by council under the previous ANC-led administration in 2016.”
She said the city had entered into an agreement contrary to the Municipal Systems Act, Municipal Finance Management Act and the Public Private Partnership regulations.
“It begs the question why the contract was agreed upon despite serious concerns by the Gauteng and National Treasury about the flawed procurement process the City followed,” said Taunyane.
“As a result of entering into the contract, the city was contractually bound to pay an annual off-take amount of R278-million.”
Taunyane said with the city moving forward with the ruling, it would be enabled to allocate funds fairly and equitably according to residents’ most pertinent service delivery needs.
“The ruling isn’t only a victory for the City, but for justice in the face of nefarious public officials who fail to serve the public.”
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Tshwane Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa said “I take this opportunity to assure residents that there is no battle that I will shy away from if the possibility of victory stands to benefit them. This is part of my commitment to eliminate elements that impede this administration under my leadership from working towards improving the lives of our people.”
This comes after the City had approached the North Gauteng High Court to set aside the so-called Tshwane Broadband contract with Thobela Telecoms on the grounds that the previous administration entered into this contract unlawfully.
In November 2016 the Auditor-General found the deal to be irregular and determined its value at R2.736-billion.
The AG’s finding prompted the previous Tshwane mayor’s administration to investigate the deal that would have bound the city to an 18-year relationship with the service provider at the cost of R2.736-billion excluding VAT.
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