Pretoria - Tshwane mayor Randall Williams has come under fire following this week’s downgrading of the metro’s credit status by rating agency Moody’s Investors Service.
ActionSA called for Williams to step down, while the Good political party called for the DA-led municipality to be placed under administration again.
Gauteng campaign manager for ActionSA Abel Tau, said: “It is very clear that he is not fit for purpose. If he really cared about the people of Tshwane, he would step down. The City cannot be allowed to continue on auto-pilot any longer.”
Tau was reacting to Moody’s announcement lowering the City’s credit rating status to Caa2 from B1 with a worrying forecast that the municipality could end 2021 with a more than R1 billion deficit.
“The latest downgrade highlights the desperately deteriorating financial position of the City following a previous downgrade in April,” Tau said.
He added that the City had gone from reporting financial surpluses in revenue collection to bankruptcy under Williams’s leadership.
On the other hand, Good believes the latest development justifies its call to place the municipality under provincial government administration.
Party spokesperson Sam Shabane, said: “If the DA-led City administration is left to mismanage the City until after the local government elections in October – or later, depending on Covid and the IEC – there will be virtually nothing left for a new administration to re-build on.”
He said placing Tshwane under provincial administration would be “a short-term bandage to stem the blood-flow and stabilise the patient. Then voters must decide, in October, who they want to lead the recovery”.
Tau, however, expressed a differing view, saying the intervention by the ANC-led Gauteng provincial government previously had, “proved to be in breach of our laws and a political tactic”.
“Under the provincial administrators, the City went from bad to worse,” he said.
Tshwane’s Chief of Staff Jordan Griffiths expressed disappointment with the Moody’s rating.
“We have engaged with them quite extensively over the last few weeks to highlight what has been done in the City. When the current administration assumed office it inherited a R4 billion deficit left behind by the ANC administrators."
He said Tshwane was taking Moody’s rating very seriously, and “responding to those issues systematically, particularly in terms of stabilising revenue collection and ensuring that the City is able to meet all its obligations”.
According to Moody’s, the City’s weaker revenue collection and more than 28% salary increases last year, were among the reasons it downgraded the metro’s credit status.
The rating agency forecast that the municipality could end this year with a deficit of more than a R1 billion.
Griffiths hit out at Good’s criticism, saying its statement lacked substance and that the party was “generally grasping at straws”.
“Despite acknowledging that the ANC placed the City under administration and led it into financial ruin, they then indicate that the City must be placed under administration again. That suggests a lack of understanding of how local government works and how this process should be done.”
Griffiths also criticised Tau, saying it was ironic that he had made negative statements against the administration under former mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, despite being part of the executive.
Pretoria News