Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Cllr Jacqui Uys here, and the letter to the Public Protector here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Tshwane today opened a case with the Public Protector to launch an investigation into the tax delinquent Triotic Protection Services. a company with ties to the City of Tshwane’s Deputy Executive Mayor, the ANC’s Eugene Modise.
The DA has previously written to Tshwane Mayor, Nasiphi Moya, submitting clear guidelines for the terms of reference of an investigation to establish if Tshwane Deputy Mayor, the ANC’s Eugene Modise, who started Triotic, is still financially benefitting from this company who was appointed onto a panel that provides the city of watchman services worth R300 million.
The governing coalition has since increased the budget of this tender to R615 million for this financial year. We are still awaiting a response from the mayor on both the commencement of, and the terms of reference of the probe into Modise.
The DA also revealed that, while having a judgement against them for owing SARS R59 million, Triotic Protection Services was not only appointed to the City of Tshwane’s Watchman Services Panel but was also awarded a R59 million tender with the Gauteng Health Department for security services.
According to their website, Triotic also has other governmental contracts, leaving the question of how these were awarded without a tax clearance certificate, as this is a tender requirement in all spheres of government.
The DA has, on three occasions, written to the Tshwane City Manager to investigate how this company was appointed to a panel to provide services to the city if they did not have a Tax clearance certificate. This has not yielded results, and the DA has now taken the step of approaching the public protector to probe these matters. The residents of Tshwane deserve a Deputy Mayor and MMC of Finance that put their needs first, who is responsible with the public purse and the DA will not relent until the truth comes out.