The DA’s Clr Ashor Sarupen will re-table his anti-corruption motion to council, which would open the proceedings of committees that award tenders to public scrutiny.
This comes after the motion was killed early this year in the council’s Programming Committee, when the Speaker refused to allow it to be brought to the chamber for debate.
Sarupen said when the DA was elected to govern the city of Cape Town, in 2006, it pursued several anti-corruption measures, including opening the proceedings of its Bid Adjudication Committee (which awards tenders to companies based on their bids) to public and media scrutiny.
“In terms of law, all councillors are banned from attending or interfering with the proceedings of this committee, but municipalities are legally entitled to decide if they will allow the public and media to observe the process of awarding tenders,” said Sarupen.
Shortly after the start of the current term of office in 2011, Sarupen called on the council and the mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele, to open up this process to public and media scrutiny, but these calls went unheeded by the ANC.
“In 2012, President Jacob Zuma pronounced in parliament that Ekurhuleni was one of the most corrupt municipalities in Gauteng, with SIU investigations revealing that State employees were doing business with the metro, and that the municipality had ghost employees on its payroll and other serious problems,” he added.
“Compounding this, five senior officials, including the former chief financial officer of the municipality, were suspended over a R200-million water meter tender that was alleged to have been awarded improperly.
“To date, the council has received no reports or further feedback on these matters.
“I tabled this motion in January, this year, and the Speaker of the council disallowed it on the basis that the mayor was supposedly tightening up the various systems in the municipality to minimise corruption.
“Six months later, nothing has been done by the mayor — or, if he has, he’s not sharing the information with members of council.
“The DA will not just sit back and watch as millions that should be spent on the poor are lost through corruption and wasteful expenditure.
“I intend to fight as hard as necessary to bring this motion to the floor for debate. “If the ANC votes it down, then they need to explain to the residents why they won’t accept that the public has a right to know how tenders are awarded in this city.”
