Pretoria - Tshwane’s executive mayor, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, has defended the municipality’s decision to enter into a service level agreement with a company to which it awarded a tender for the installation of prepaid smart meters throughout the metro.
“We are satisfied that due process was followed and we are pushing ahead with the project,” said Ramokgopa during the council’s monthly meeting yesterday.
Peu Capital Partners was awarded the tender. The DA and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) have spoken against awarding it to the company.
Ramokgopa said those who were opposed to it “should not raise the issue with us but raise it with the public protector, the Hawks and other law enforcement agencies”.
“We are confident that the process is above board. The matter has been discussed with various government departments and they have all made their input,” he said.
DA councillor Bronwyn Engelbrecht said one of the company’s subsidiaries, Masana Technologies, was responsible for Joburg’s SAP implementation and billing crisis.
“This does not bode well for a company wanting to enter the tender market. Tshwane Utility Management Services already sent out invitations to tender as advertised in the Sunday Times, 12 May, for the supply, installation and maintenance of prepaid smart meters.
“This means that Peu has no intention of supplying or installing the smart meters,” she said.
Engelbrecht said the council breached the Municipal Finance Management Act, “and the DA suggests that this municipality is misleading the public and national government and National Treasury”.
Engelbrecht’s DA colleague, Cilliers Brink, said what residents feared about the Peu deal was not prepaid meters, but that “responsibility will shift from unreliable comrades in government to unreliable comrades in business, while we all end up paying more”.
“We have no information before us about Peu… Whether it has the capacity and future capacity to deliver we do not know,” said Brink.
ACDP councillor Anniruth Kissoonduth said the party was opposed to rolling out the infrastructure project and the manner in which it was allocated to Peu.
Peu’s estimated income would reach about R30 billion over 10 years for installing 800 000 meters. After 10 years, each meter would have cost R37 500 “for an item that can be bought for about R2 400”.
Kissoonduth said the metro had a loss of income from electricity use of about R750 million, from an audited electricity income of R7.5bn for 2012/2013.
“With the roll-out of the smart meter project, the City of Tshwane will give away a contracted R1.5bn of this income to Peu. It is very worrying that Peu was responsible for drafting the bid evaluation guidelines and competed as one of the bidders, with all the insider information on what was required to be the successful bidder.”
The member of the mayoral committee responsible for public works and infrastructure development, Jacob Masango, said the government had engaged all government departments and had clarified all the legal issues. “We are proceeding with the project.”
Pretoria News