Set SIU on 'corrupt' DA-led Tshwane metro, ANC tells Cyril Ramaphosa
The ANC caucus in Tshwane on Thursday called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign off a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) proclamation and establish a commission of inquiry to probe the DA-led coalition government in the city.
Tshwane ANC chair Kgosi Maepa told the media that the GladAfrica contract that was found to be unlawful and irregular by the auditor-general was enough evidence that the DA-led city was engaged in maladministration and corruption.
Maepa said the SIU and a commission of inquiry would uncover this and expose the city.
This comes at the back of an allegation that recently elected Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa had reached an agreement with GladAfrica to pay the company a "corrupt golden handshake" worth R250m before June.
"The ANC in Tshwane is asking the president to sign an SIU proclamation into the city of Tshwane," said Maepa during a media briefing on Thursday.
"The president announced last week that there is an SIU judges panel to fast-track matters now. We want Tshwane to be the guinea pig case study number one on that forum.
"Secondly, as a country we are faced with many commissions of inquiry and we are calling for one to investigate the work of the DA in Tshwane since it started to govern in 2016 until now. The president must put one here, on the DA."
Maepa said the story of "we are clean where we govern" was "a blue lie".
"We know that they are not clean in this city," said Maepa.
The ANC also called on the Hawks to trace the R500m already paid to GladAfrica since 2018 "and the beneficiaries of this irregular and illegal contract".
Maepa also raised concern about the city's capital expenditure, which stood at 22% with only four months to the end of the financial year.
"When the ANC was the government in Tshwane, by the third quarter we had always spent 80% of the capital budget while the DA has only spent 22% and we want National Treasury to intervene here.
"But who are the victims of this under-spending? The victims are the people on the ground, the ones with water crisis in Hammanskraal, the electricity cuts in Mamelodi and Soshanguve and so on and so forth," said Maepa.