Tshwane mayor in hot water over R250m ‘golden handshake’ to GladAfrica

The ANC caucus in the City of Tshwane council has lambasted newly elected mayor Stevens Mokgalapa for allegedly giving a R250m “golden handshake” to GladAfrica.

This comes after Mokgalapa announced that the city would cut ties with the company by June 30, following findings by the auditor-general last year of irregularity in their contract.

"There is no golden handshake and there are no terms of agreement. All that will happen is that they are completing the project,” the mayor told 702 talk radio on Monday.

However, the ANC in the city insists that the mayor paid a R250m settlement to the company without the council's approval.

"The ANC is horrified that the executive mayor is offering GladAfrica council money as a mutual agreement and a corrupt golden handshake to part ways with them, while we have a report from the AG indicating that the contract is irregular and illegal," the caucus said on Monday.

"The ANC suspects that the executive mayor 'Mr Gimmicks' [Mokgalapa] is concluding the grand theft and corruption by further paying R250m on top of an illegal payment of R500m already paid to GladAfrica.

"The GladAfrica contract was an irregular and illegal consulting assignment, so the city will pay almost R1bn without new assets in the forms of roads, clinic and other infrastructure,” it said.

The ANC argued that "there was no contract to terminate" following the auditor-general's findings, which they believe nullified the agreement.

The party said it would ask the mayor where he got the mandate to reach an agreement with GladAfrica and why he did so without the council's approval.

The GladAfrica contract was red-flagged by the auditor-general as irregular and illegal after it was issued without proper supply-chain management and Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) processes being followed