Rand West District Municipality has awarded a tender valued at R76.18 million to a state official. This happens under Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s watch, which is evidence that his government is determined to enrich only a few business owners with ties to the government.
This information was revealed in the Auditor-General’s (AG) report regarding the state of municipal finances for the 2023/2024 financial year. The AG indicates that prohibited awards totalled 432, with Rand West City Municipality being one of the offenders.
This trend of officials doing business with the state is worrying. This indicates a lack of internal controls within municipalities. In this province, service delivery has largely collapsed, and residents are unable to access basic services, including refuse removal, electricity, and water. To make matters worse, there are currently nine municipalities with unfunded mandates.
In essence, municipalities are delivering services without the money, while state officials are lining their pockets with money from tenders that they should not have been awarded in the first place.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng will be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to determine what action has been taken regarding the Rand West official who awarded the tender mentioned in the AG’s report, what company the tender was given to, the type of service that was required, and what steps have been taken to ensure that this does not happen again.
A DA-led Gauteng provincial government would immediately ensure that all officials declare any businesses that they may own. This register would be regularly updated and checked against all companies pitching for tenders. Due diligence will be done to ensure that no official is linked in any way to a company that receives a tender from any government institution. Yes, this can be done!