LETTER: Tshwane must fix its procurement system

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proclamation allowing the Special Investigating Unit to investigate the Tshwane Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant contract is important to root out malfeasance in the city’s procurement processes.

According to the auditor-general the city accumulated irregular and wasteful expenditure of about R10bn in the 2021/22 financial year, which points to a rotten procurement system that flouts its own policies. This is fertile ground for corruption to flourish.

Though the president’s proclamation deals with only one contract costing R290m, it proves the correctness of the concern the select committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs had about the city’s affairs. It must be noted that the city has welcomed the proclamation, but it raises questions of whether the city is capable of rooting out corruption and ensuring an accountable municipality.

Whatever the investigation reveals, the bottom line is that the city’s administration must strengthen its systemically weak procurement system, and that the council must desist from selfish internal political squabbles to focus on oversight to ensure quality services for the people.

The people of Tshwane, the seat of the executive arm of state, deserve better services and a corruption-free supply chain management system.

China Dodovu
Chair, parliamentary select committee on co-operative governance & traditional affairs, water & sanitation, and human settlements. 

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