Tshwane ANC threatens Msimanga with public protector probe

Pretoria - The African National Congress (ANC) Tshwane caucus has on Wednesday come out strong in criticising the city’s mayor Solly Msimanga saying it will be reporting issues of “gross financial mismanagement, maladministration and total disregard to constitutional and legal dictates” to the office of the Public Protector before Christmas.

The ANC leaders in Tshwane led by former mayor of the city, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, addressed the media in the capital giving an assessment of Msimanga’s 16-month-old administration.

Ramokgopa was scathing in his assessment accusing the Democratic Alliance-led administration of running the capital city down. He sharply criticised Msimanga over the R2 billion budget deficit that the City said they had as result of the previous ANC led municipality.

The former mayor was commenting on Msimanga’s comments last month that the DA-led multiparty inherited an R2 billion budget deficit.

“When we left office, the council had close to R700 million in surplus. How then do we become responsible for the R2 billion deficit? Msimanga and his MMC must tell the residents of Tshwane how they are running the city,” he said.

“It is disheartening and sad to inform members of the public our residents that the City of Tshwane has plunged into a financial crisis of unprecedented proportions. This DA-led administration has in no time destroyed a sound and stable financial legacy left by the ANC administration.”

The ANC leaders in Tshwane said the extent of the crises in the city can no longer be ignored and required immediate intervention.

“The extent of crises has required a provincial and ultimately a national financial rescue intervention in terms of section 139 of the constitution, read with chapter 13 of the MFA,” read the statement from the ANC caucus.

The group also poked holes in Msimanga’s revenue collections methods in the city, saying some of them are blatantly illegal.

“We have discovered that since July 2017, the city has been billing residents of Tshwane an illegal tax, city cleaning levy, of R127.04 per household and R2,911.67 to commercial and industrial properties respectively," read the statement. 

"The city stands to collect over R2.2 billion annually out of this collection. This further demonstrates total disregard of the constitution especially S2229 municipal powers and functions, which governs the regime of taxation."

Ramakgopa said it was for these reasons that they will be approaching the of the Public Protector before Christmas.

African News Agency/ANA