Tshwane city manager says DA using ‘Stratcom’ tactics against him

In an angry press release on Sunday afternoon, Tshwane city manager Moeketsi Mosola claimed the DA had leaked a report about him to the media.

He slammed the party for “dirty and unlawful tricks … in tarnishing his good name and reputation”.

Mosola said his interdict against mayor Solly Msimanga and the speaker at the Labour Court had barred the tabling of the investigative Bowman Gilfillan preliminary report in Council, and so the party had then allegedly leaked it to Sunday papers.

The Sunday Times and City Press reported that a provisional finding from law firm Bowmans was that a R12 billion project-management tender to engineering consultants GladAfrica had been issued in contravention of tender law.

In his statement, he said, “It is shocking and disturbing that the DA, a governing party in the City of Tshwane that claims to respect the rule of law, has chosen to leak a council report to the media – a serious transgression against the court interdict.”

He complained that he had not seen the report himself, despite being its subject.

“The least I expected from Solly Msimanga was to respect the law instead of blatantly defying the court instructions and acting illegally and unlawfully leaking a bogus report in the dead of night.

“These antics are similar to that of apartheid StratCom. The people of Tshwane and South Africa must know that the DA government in Tshwane acted unconstitutionally by defying the court order and therefore they cannot lay a claim to clean governance. Clean governance means respecting the rule of law even if it does not favour you.”

He claimed the leak was done to tarnish his name.

(Edited by Charles Cilliers)

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