‘The city will not pay a cent’: Tshwane defends R26bn power project

Tshwane mayor Randall Williams is insisting that he does not know who the consortium partners are that have given the metro a proposal to maintain and operate the Pretoria West and Rooiwal power substations to generate 800MW of electricity for the city.

The mayor has been accused of being involved in an “unsolicited” R26 billion tender with an energy company.

The consortium has proposed a 30-year lease to build gas turbines that would supply 800MW to the metro which, according to the mayor, would cost the tax payers nothing.

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On Friday, Williams said that after the lease ended, everything built on the city’s land would belong to the municipality.

Williams has, however, said this was not a tender, but rather an investment proposal by a consortium.

“There is no R26-billion tender as contained in the proposal. The R26 billion figure is an estimated value of the investment coming into the city.

“I don’t look who the investors are, that is for the administrator. What I have heard is that Siemens and Afrigreen are part of it but there are more. I don’t have their names as it is not for me to know the names,” he said.

“This was an investment proposal and ultimately the proposal will be evaluated by the bid adjudicating committee.

“That is when the officials will look at who the companies are. A tender is issued when a municipality needs goods or services and that is a solicited bid,” said Williams.

He said with an unsolicited bid, a company identifies a need and approaches the municipality to offer their services.

“This investment proposal was not an unsolicited bid. An unsolicited investment proposal is not an unsolicited bid. Getting the R26 billion in the city does not mean we are excluding others.

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“If there are more bidders who are doing the same thing, they are welcome to bring their offers.”

Williams said if this investment project succeeded, they would welcome it.

“We hope that this investment takes place. We hope that will be the end of load shedding. The stunts pulled by ActionSA are very sad because their facts are wrong.

“We hope that we can convince them that this will benefit the people of the city.”

Tshwane MMC for finance Peter Sutton said it was not the metro’s business to know how this consortium will finance their business.

“What is in front of council is to lease the land. How they will be financed, how they will do their business is not our business.

“We have to collect rates, taxes and services. What is at stake is that we lease the land and that’s all that we ask. The city will not pay a cent for this. We are in support of this because it is the future of South Africa.”

Gauteng Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Solly Msimanga said it was normal for mayors to be approached regarding such issues as they are the face of government.

“You can be told of an idea that exists. It happens to the president, the premier and the mayor. What is a differentiating factor is how you take the proposal forward.”

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