The DA laid criminal charges against the mayor of the Beaufort West Municipality, Truman Prince.
This, after he wrote a letter to the chairperson of the Board of the Construction, Education and Training Authority, Raymond Cele, calling for a tender for the construction of a Skills Development and Trade Centre, to be given to ANC-linked companies.
In the letter, on a municipal letter-head and signed by him, Truman said this is so that those ANC-sympathetic companies would contribute to the party's local government election campaign.
The Truman letter appears to have been prompted by a decision by the CETA to use its own procurement processes to secure a contractor to do the work.
DA national spokesperson, Phumzile Van Damme, said criminal charges were laid against Prince on Thursday.
She said there is clear evidence in the form of a letter implicating the Beaufort West mayor in corruption.
" We have also written a letter to the Public Protector requesting that she launch an investigation and this follows clear evidence of corruption in a form of a letter, where Mr Prince requests tenders be allocated in his office so that they can be granted to people with close links to the ANC. So that the people in turn can donate money to the ANC's election funding" she said.
Van Damme said It is a clear violation in terms of section 3 of the Prevention and Combating of Criminal Activities Act, which states that it is an offence amounting to an abuse of position or authority if a person.
"Directly or indirectly gives or agrees or offers to give to any other person any gratification, whether for the benefit of that other person or for the benefit of another person" she said.
She added that To date, the ANC has neither publicly commented, nor condemned Mr Prince's actions.
Beaufort West acting municipal manager, Amos Makendlana, declined to comment and said he still needed to discuss the allegations with Prince.
To read the full letter click on PDF file:
