Tshwane mayor Randall Williams denies wrongdoing in R26bn power project

Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams has accused the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ActionSA of destabilising the coalition administration.

This after a leaked audio clip from a meeting chaired by Williams, which included officials from the City Manager’s Office, Mayor’s Office, Electricity Department, and Chief Operations Cluster.

The officials were brainstorming about an electricity investment project that had been received by the City to re-purpose the City’s coal power plants which have not been used since 2014, and convert them to use gas to help the city avoid load shedding.

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It involved an unsolicited R26 billion project with an Australian energy company Kratos Energy to refurbish, maintain and operate the Pretoria West and Rooiwal power substations to self-generate 800 Megawatts of electricity for the city.

Williams said the intention of the meeting was to workshop and brainstorm an investment proposal

He said the recording of an internal Tshwane meeting that he chaired, clearly de-contextualised with the aim of discrediting and smearing him as executive mayor.

“This dishonest act was disturbing as it came from one of the coalition partners in the City, Action SA, who are attempting to frame the recording as some indictment against me.”

“For an hour and half, myself and officials discussed how to approach this matter within the confines of local government legislation and the law, so that we follow due process. No unlawful instructions were given. By the end of this, we agreed on the way forward, a process which has taken us a year but resulted in us bringing a public participation report on this matter to Council today,” Williams said.

The EFF in Tshwane said it will, on Wednesday, lay criminal charges against the Williams for undue influence in the proposed project while the African National Congress (ANC), the main opposition in the council has called on the mayor to resign following the revelations.

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