Who will account for Tshwane?
“Residents have no place to negotiate, march against decisions taken basically they have been pushed to a corner with no power."
Should the Tshwane metro hit an administrative disaster under the leadership of the current administrators, residents would have no one to hold to account other than the Gauteng provincial government.
This was according to Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, a political analyst at the University of Pretoria.
Maluleke said as the country continued to be faced with Covid-19 tenders entangled in corruption allegations, it was even more worrisome in the case of Tshwane with no council to gain scrutiny over tenders.
“Tshwane residents have fallen in the hands of people who do not have to explain themselves while taking decisions on important issues such as budgets.
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“Residents have no place to negotiate, march against decisions taken – basically they have been pushed into a corner with no power.
“The only elected statutory body that placed the administrators there, is the provincial government and residents must hold them to account.”
Maluleke, however, said bringing the provincial government to account for maladministration would be a difficult task.
“We have seen how difficult it is to make ward councillors account for wrong actions, it will be even harder to do so with the provincial government.
“As it stands in the Tshwane metro, there is no one the residents can hold to account. This is concerning in the matter of contracts and tenders issued. Although one may say it is sceptical to suspect possible Covid-19 tenders corruption in Tshwane, with no council this has made the Tshwane metro a primary target for so-called tenderpreneurs,” he said.
“The administrators are not like elected candidates: they do not answer to residents, only to the provincial government which is supposedly supervising them.”
Maluleke said it would be a “pleasant miracle” should the metro be found not to be affected by any fraudulent tenders.
“We will only see this when the provincial government publishes a list of tenders awarded so they can be probed if they are affiliated with any of the administrators and how long they had been in business and which services or products they offered,” he said.
“The longer the administrators rule over Tshwane, the harder it will be for residents. More important decisions have and will continue being left at the hands of the administrators.”
Last Thursday, DA interim leader John Steenhuisen also raised flags over accountability in the country’s capital city under the administration.
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Steenhuisen, however, said until the legal battles settled over the administration of Tshwane, the council could probe into tender processes.
He said the DA was ready to face the ANC head-on on Monday, at the Supreme Court of Appeals to have councillors reinstated after the Gauteng high court judgement finding the Tshwane administration invalid back in April.
“We expect the same findings as that of the high court as we believe that the metro was wrongly placed under administration and was nothing but a political power grab technic. Most importantly, this court hearing will be important for the independence of the municipality to operate without the unwarranted influence of provincial government,” he said.
Tshwane head administrator Mpho Nawa, however, bashed the DA’s claims over the metro being “chaotic”.
Nawa said the administration team was “doing its work”.
“We are busy resolving challenges that the metro faced before the administration.”
On accountability, Nawa said they were checked by provincial government monthly, on all decisions they made.
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