Tshwane mayor not guilty of flouting finance rules in multi-billion energy deal but remains under watch
Randall Williams’ instructions to municipal officials about the energy deal were said to be potentially outside his authority and will be referred to the Tshwane oversight committee for further investigation.
While Tshwane mayor Randall Williams was found not guilty of flouting municipal finance management rules in a proposed multi-billion energy bid, his conduct against metro officials will be scrutinised by the council.
This was according to the multi-party government which spoke on findings of an independent investigation into Williams’ conduct on Saturday.
Williams was accused in August of exerting ‘undue political influence’ on officials during a meeting about an unsolicited offer of R48.6-billion from an Australian energy service provider.
The meeting was recorded and published in the media.
Energy service company Kratos Energy submitted an unsolicited proposal – a closed offer by a sole provider not open to public tender – to refurbish, finance, operate and maintain the Pretoria West and Rooiwal power stations for 30 years.
In a statement on Saturday, the multi-party government said Williams was found not guilty of breaching Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) rules as “the proposal did not constitute procurement and therefore no alleged breaches of the MFMA were concluded to have taken place”.
The multi-party coalition said the report, however, did find that there was a case to be answered by Williams for giving instructions to municipal officials that were possibly outside of the scope of his authority.
“The report did conclude that a case exists to be answered for in terms of Williams’ instructions to municipal officials being potentially outside of the scope of his authority and in violation of the code of conduct of councillors,” the statement read.
DA and ActionSA had different views on the report findings, the multi-party government said.
The matter of possible violation of the councillors’ code of conduct by Williams would be investigated by the speaker of council, Dr Murunwa Makwarela.
“The alleged breach of the coalition agreement was referred for further investigation within the coalition structure,” the statement read.
Makwarela said the matter would be debated in the next council meeting at the end of the month.
“Once I’ve received the complaint, the matter will be referred to the rules and ethics oversight committee for investigation.
“Council cannot reach a conclusion on this until it receives findings from the oversight committee,” said Makwarela.
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