Chaos erupts in Tshwane council as budget sparks corruption allegations

The City of Tshwane’s latest council meeting turned into a circus again with accusations and insults dominating the debate between the current administration and the opposition on the 2024/25 adjustments budget.

116 members of the City of Tshwane council voted in favour of Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya’s 2024/25 Adjustments Budget, while 88 councillors voted against the vincreases proposed.

From the start of the session, councillors and MMCs laughed, screamed and clapped hands while the speaker of the house struggled to get the council calm to vote for the budget.

Tshwane council meeting turns into circus, again

Earlier this week the DA Tshwane Spokesperson on Finance Jacqui Uys said the opposition will demand an investigation into Tshwane Deputy Mayor Eugene Modise’s possible tender grift.

“In November 2024, I wrote to the city manager raising alarm on a company named Triotic Protection Services, a company started by the Deputy Executive Mayor and MMC of Finance, Eugene Modise, and a service provider benefitting from the city of Tshwane’s R300 million a year security tender,” she said.

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Uys said they found that the registered company address of Triotic Protection Services, a company tied to Modise, was a property belonging to his mother and that the company’s HR manager turned director was allegedly the mother of Modise’s child.

The former MMC of Finance, Uys, also accused the mayor of misleading the house and asked why the mayor had decreased the budget for waste removal.

“If the mayor is saying that they are adjusting the budget because they found waste accounts that are not billed, then why is she tabling a budget that is downward adjusting the projected revenue for waste by R74 million?” she asked.

Mayor, deputy mayor refused to answer questions

Moya and her deputy mayor, the current MMC of Finance, refused to answer any questions from the opposition and said they should put their questions in writing.

The DA’s Tshwane caucus leader Cilliers Brink said the part rejects the budget adjustment because the ANC coalition wants Tshwane residents to pay for more water tankers and security companies.

“The biggest increases go to water tankers and watchman security services. This is a budget for water tankering contractors and the owners of security companies doing business with Tshwane. With five months left of the municipal financial year, the mayor wants us to increase spending on water tankers by 62% — adding R242 million to the R378 million in the original budget,” he said.

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Brink said Moya wants to increase spending on watchman security services by 103% — adding R315 million to the R307 million in the original budget.

“Last year we had a violent unprotected strike between the budget and the budget adjustment. What happened this year?”

Mayor serving senior coalition partners – former mayor Brink

Brink said the ANC took control of Tshwane, and the mayor is serving her senior coalition partners.

“The ANC coalition in Tshwane is budgeting for failure. With the active encouragement of Panyaza Lesufi, they want to turn Tshwane into Joburg. The DA will fight them all the way,” he said.

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During one of the caucus breaks, ActionSA caucus spokesperson Tshepiso Modiba accused the Brink administration of exorbitant, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure for the 2024/2025 financial year.

Modiba said the adjustment budget demonstrated a commitment to transparency and accountability by prioritising essential services and ensuring funds were allowed where they were needed most.

Former administration accused of overspending R883m

They accused the former administration of overspending R883.5 million on water and sanitation, R856 million overspent on financial services, and R1.3 million wasted on debt impairment caused by deterioration of municipal revenue collection.

According to ActionSA, Tshwane’s other overspending includes R366 million overspent on regional operations, including excessive overtime and mismanagement of maintenance budgets, and R40.5 million overspent on mismanaged inventory and interests on overdue lease payments.