Pretoria - Leaders of the South African Communist Party (SACP), the South African Civic Organisation (Sanco) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) threatened mass action and a legal suit on Thursday against Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa and senior municipal officials.
“We need to be very clear and straightforward in terms of the alliance. There is no alliance here in Tshwane. We do have documentation that speaks of an alliance but the leader is failing to coordinate the alliance components. There has never been an alliance here,” SACP Tshwane secretary Apson Makaung told reporters in Pretoria.
“There is no alliance with the ANC, that is why you see SACP, Sanco and Cosatu always together.”
The three organisations levelled several allegations against Ramokgopa. Makaung said the relationship had degenerated between Ramokgopa and the alliance partners, who have constantly raised concerns about alleged corruption in the capital city.
“There is corruption. A person who wants to do his own things will not want to be closer to others. We continuously question the manner in which the municipality is being run. There is no relationship and information is not being shared,” said Makaung.
Among a list of allegations, Makaung said the municipality lost millions of rands in the TribeOne music festival fiasco and had given international artists Nicki Minaj R10 million even though she didn’t perform.
“That case was not in line with the Municipal Finance Management Act. The law says you cannot pay a service provider before the service has been provided. In this instance, Nicki Minaj was paid without doing any service,” said Makaung.
More than R60 million was reportedly spent on the musical show which suffered a stillbirth. Popular US performer Nicki Minaj was paid a non-refundable appearance fee of R10 million that was not recovered after the festival was cancelled.
Makaung said the ANC’s alliance partners were angry because Ramokgopa was also privatising several municipal assets.
“The Pretoria showground has been privatised. The people of Tshwane are the owners of that property and they are not informed about the municipality decisions. They are outsourcing the Wonderboom airport. Was there any public participation? The city is also outsourcing two electricity power stations at Rooival and the one in Pretoria west. He is privatising willy-nilly,” he said.
“Taking a person fresh from the private sector to come and lead a public institution, I think it was a mistake. He is privatising everything. That is oriented in terms of the private mentality. Who is the owner of those private companies? Sometimes a person is privatising when it is a javelin of a special type. When one leaves public office, the municipality has nothing and you have invested.”
Declining to outline their court case, the aggrieved organisations claimed an estimated R1,28 billion has been wasted in the space of two years through alleged corruption and maladministration.
Cosatu regional chairman Thomas Hlongwane said the alliance partners were fed up with Ramokgopa’s egotism.
“We cannot have an arrogant executive mayor. He is not leading Tshwane in good faith. When we try to have a meeting with the mayor, he is not available. How then do you call such a person a leader? As Cosatu we are saying he must stop being arrogant and come to the party,” said Hlongwane.
“There is no relationship since the mayor was appointed. There was a relationship when he was the (ANC) regional chairperson before he became the mayor.”
Sanco regional chairman Samuel Matlala said the ANC was manipulating the alliance.
“The alliance only exists when it suits the ANC. It is only an alliance when we are needed by the ANC. It is not an alliance of purpose. We need to be very careful when talking about the alliance in Tshwane,” said Matlala.
The three organisations threatened that if their grievances were not addressed inside three days, they would roll out mass action and ensure that no council meetings took place across the city.
Mayoral spokesman Blessing Manale was not available to comment.
Earlier this week, Ramokgopa denied widespread allegations that the city would lose R1,2 billion following the termination of a lucrative smart pre-paid meter contract with service provider, PEU Capital Partners.
ANA