The DA-run Midvaal local municipality in Meyerton, Gauteng, often hailed by the party as one of the country’s top-performing municipalities, is under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) over a tender it awarded in 2020.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the SIU to probe the contract awarded to Red Ants Security Relocation & Eviction Services for the supply and maintenance of a vehicle tracking system.
The tender, which lapses in June next year, was evaluated on September 4 2020 and approved 13 days later.
Ramaphosa wants the SIU to investigate whether the awarding of the contract was irregular.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the unit decided to investigate the tender after a whistleblower alerted them to possible tender irregularities.
“We took the matter to the justice department and the department sent it to president Ramaphosa. The president gave us the proclamation and the powers to investigate this matter,” he said, adding SIU would now send a letter of engagement to Midvaal.
Midvaal mayor Peter Teixeira however, said the municipality was not aware of any SIU investigation. “We have not been contacted by SIU. This might be a rumour or a lie, there is no such,” he said.
The awarding of the tender took place under former mayor Bongani Baloyi, who has since left the DA to join Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA.
Baloyi, seen as his party’s likely contender for the Gauteng premiership in 2024, has long boasted about his clean record at the municipality. During his tenure, he received seven consecutive clean audits, indicating the council’s stable and sound financial management principles.
Baloyi said he welcomed the investigation into the tender. He however said the whistleblower was likely to be a disgruntled employee with an axe to grind. He said during the tender process, the fleet manager at the municipality was against the awarding of the tender to Red Ants “as he had his own vested interests”.
Baloyi alleges that the company the fleet manager favoured to be awarded the contract “had something against him”.
“The fleet manager, realising that he was in trouble, wrote to everyone with his allegations including the Presidency. He also wrote to the mayor recently claiming that all the officials are being bribed by the Red Ants,” Baloyi said. “The mayor has appointed investigators to investigate this matter … as the investigations are getting closer … he is bringing up all these things, as he is aware that he has a case to answer.”
The municipality was last month rated the most financially sustainable municipality in the country by Ratings Afrika in its latest Municipal Financial Sustainability Index.
Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga said the party welcomes the investigation.
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