Polokwane - The ANC wants to control all tenders and vacancies at Limpopo municipalities by giving “direction” before they are awarded.
This directive was given to provincial mayors by Falaza Mdaka, the chairman of the ANC provincial task team. Mdaka’s newly appointed team yesterday summoned all mayors to the ANC provincial headquarters to brief them on decisions taken at a meeting on Monday.
Two sources who attended yesterday’s meeting said ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Thulas Nxesi was present. “Mdaka said all tenders must first come to the ANC for approval,” said the source. “Their reason is that the ANC is the centre of power.”
Yesterday Mdaka refused to comment, referring queries to the team’s spokesman, Sello Lediga.
The task team was appointed after the ANC disbanded the provincial executive committee led by Premier Cassel Mathale, accusing it of perpetuating factions. Nxesi couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.
But the head of ANC NEC deployees to the province, Ruth Bhengu, denied the ANC wanted to adjudicate and award tenders, saying this would be in contravention of Treasury regulations. She insisted the ANC had an obligation to guide municipalities to award tenders in line with the Freedom Charter, its election manifesto and the strategy to alleviate the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality.
“That does not mean to say you are choosing a particular company, but you are giving a particular direction,” said Bhengu. “You get into making people understand what must be done to achieve (ANC objectives) when issuing a tender.”
Lediga also denied claims that the party wanted to decide on who got tenders. He said it wanted to determine the pattern of awarding tenders in municipalities to check if there had been favouritism.
The Star