WATCH: Randall Williams: from Cape Flats to becoming capital city’s new boss

Sitting in the mayoral office overlooking the downtown Pretoria central business district, newly elected mayor Randall Williams tells of the time he flew to France in the late ’80s to receive military training as he intended to volunteer in ANC’s armed wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK).

Fast-forward to 2020, Williams, 59, became the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) third mayor in the current administration after being elected in the first council sitting in eight months at the end of October. His election comes after the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered council to be reinstated following the city being placed under administration by the Gauteng provincial government in what the DA described as a coup.

With notepads and documents neatly spread across a boardroom table in his new office of Tshwane House, the former member of the mayoral committee brought light to the little that is known about the capital city’s new boss.

Growing up in the heart of the Cape Flats during the ’60s and ’70s, he and his older brother were forced to learn independence from a young age. The brothers were raised by a mother who worked in the garment industry and a father addicted to alcohol and gambling.

“I had a father who, unfortunately, was an alcoholic and a gambler, so we couldn’t always depend on him. So, my mother had to work all her life,” he said.

“She started working at the age of 14 and finally retired at the age 69 because the company she worked for went bankrupt after [former finance minister] Trevor Manuel did away with high tariffs and we were flooded with cheap clothes from Vietnam and China.”

Williams was 17 when he lost his father. Heavily under the influence of alcohol, he was “mowed down” by a car while walking across the N2 highway. While he had intentions of being a lawyer, Williams was more interested in politics and used his time as an unemployed youth to attend political meetings. His brother went on to join the South African Police Service and recently retired as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the crime intelligence division in the Western Cape.

It was in 1986 when Williams decided to be “trained with the best in the world”. He borrowed R5 000 from his mother and boarded a flight to France to volunteer for the paratroopers in the French Foreign Legion for six years. He met the late ANC representative Michael Msizi in Paris, who assisted Williams in joining MK as an instructor. But after his training, his dream was halted due to negotiations between the ANC and National Party.

Under the guidance of Msizi, he was told to return home to the Cape Flats in 1993 where he remained unemployed for four years. It was during this time that he pursued his initial dream of becoming a lawyer when he enrolled at the University of South Africa to complete a four-year B.Proc degree in law.

He went on to complete a post-graduate diploma at the University of Cape Town. After practicing as an attorney at a law firm in Wynberg, Cape Town, he moved to the capital city in 1998 where he joined then department of trade and industry as an assistant trade and industry advisor, a position he described as being “one level above the cleaners”.

But by 2008, he was appointed as chief director of the international trade division and in 2012, he was approved by Cabinet to be appointed as a tribunal member of the Companies Tribunal. Two years later, he again turned his sights to politics.

Williams became a formal member of a political party, joining the DA as an activist in his ward. He then applied to be a part-time councillor in the city, but was instead made an offer as a member of the mayoral committee of economic development and spatial planning when former mayor Solly Msimanga took over in 2016. Despite nearly joining the military arm of the ANC, it was the DA’s principles, values and policies which resonated with him.

“For me, the question was about if the party I want to join represents what I stand for, then the ANC was an easy ‘no’ because of the person who was leading them during that time. For me, the principles that the DA stands for are the values that I live by.”

But he intended on having a firm hand when it came to turning around the city’s “disastrous” finances, which further worsened in the recent months under the leadership of the now-vacated administrators. Implementing a strict recovery plan, one of his priorities was to recover the R15 billion in the debtors book.

“We are putting new measures in place for revenue collection… There has been a huge underrecovery of revenue for the first four months of this financial year,” Williams said.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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