Former Tshwane mayor, Randall Williams, has broken his silence on the circumstances that saw him resigning in a huff in February 2023, claiming he was forced out by the DA leadership and criticising their handling of the city's governance.
Speaking to journalists at his Pretoria home, Williams recounted how he was called into an online meeting with DA national leader John Steenhuisen and party Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga who fired him on the instruction of the DA Federal executive.
He said his axing was executed despite that it was not supported by other members in the multiparty coalition, who wanted him to stay on as mayor.
Williams recalled a meeting of leaders of a multiparty coalition bloc where he was asked to present a recovery plan following an adverse audit outcome by the Auditor-General for the financial year 2021/2022.
“They said I needed to report to them on a regular basis on the implementation of the recovery plan,”he said.
Prior to his resignation, he said, another meeting was called by DA leaders who reiterated their initial decision to get rid of him.
“An instruction went to my chief of staff who drafted a resignation letter and the letter had to be sent to (DA chairperson of Federal council) Helen Zille, who had to approve it and then I had to sign the resignation letter,”he said.
Williams accused Msimanga of being “dishonest” to Tshwane residents when he said he was never asked to resign with immediate effect but at the end of the month.
“Since July 2022, there was a faction in my caucus consisting of a few white councillors, not the majority. They would attack me consistently with the support of Solly and some of his friends on the caucus WhatsApp group. One of them screenshot the attacks against him and sent it to Helen and claimed that the whole caucus turned against me,”he said.
He weighed in on the recent ousting of Brink through a motion of no confidence and a fight-back strategy by the DA against the move.
“I don’t know why the issues of motion of no confidence have suddenly become a problem. As the DA in the City of Tshwane we made extensive use of it. We brought them several times against (the late former Tshwane speaker and mayor) Murunwa Makwarela. We brought a motion of confidence to remove the current speaker,” he said.
Williams slammed Brink for taking credit for an improved audit outcome for the 2022/23 financial year and for working to provide clean water to Hammanskraal residents.
“Cilliers Brink was only elected towards the end of April 2023. So, of the 12 months that the financial year consists of, he was only there for two. How can he take credit for something that other mayors did?”he said.
He said the water problem in Hammanskraal is not going to be resolved this month through the provision of piped water from Magalies Water Package Plant.
During his tenure, he said, he engaged with Magalies Water to see if the entity can’t provide water to residents in Hammanskraal.
As far he knew, Magalies Water doesn’t have the capacity to provide Hammanskraal residents with water, but can only partially alleviate the problem in the township.
“I don’t believe Cilliers Brink has a divine right to govern the City of Tshwane.The City of Tshwane has severe problems; whether he is the right person to run the city I can’t say. He is definitely not a messiah,”he said.
Pretoria News