Tshwane mayor accuses ActionSA of making baseless claims over R26bn power project

City of Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams has denied giving unlawful instructions to city officials over a multi-billion rand investment proposal to lease land on which the city’s power stations are located.

Tshwane R26bn power project

The Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor briefed the media on Friday in Johannesburg on the investment proposal, after opposition parties in council – including the DA’s coalition partner ActionSA – accused him of corruption and impropriety.

This after a recording surfaced in which Williams could be heard allegedly instructing officials to support his executive decision for the project, which was rejected this week in council.

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Williams said the allegations levelled against him by ActionSA were unsubstantiated and baseless. He said there was no R26 billion unsolicited tender from the city, but an investment proposal.

The mayor explained that the proposal was for a lucrative investment project from several companies to lease land at the Pretoria West and Rooiwal power plants in order to install gas turbines.

“What ActionSA has are allegations that are unsubstantiated. 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,” Williams said.

“It is hopelessly impossible to accept an unsolicited bid of R26 billion,” he added.

R26 billion price tag

Williams said the R26 billion price tag would have not come from the metro or Tshwane residents, as the project would have been fully funded by several international funders.

The mayor said the initiative was irrationally opposed and completely misrepresented by various political parties, as it would have helped the City of Tshwane become free of load shedding.

He said he also followed all of the legal steps before presenting the public participation report on the proposal to council.

“ActionSA arguments are illogical, I’m refuting claims made against me.”

Williams said he was concerned about ActionSA’s conduct as the DA’s coalition partner in Tshwane.

He said he was considering legal action against the party’s leaders for making potentially defamatory comments against him, during a press briefing on Thursday.

“Action SA is behaving like children. If they don’t get their way, they throw all their toys out of the pram.

“It would seem ActionSA’s national and provincial leadership want to run the Tshwane coalition,” Williams said.

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