AVIS FLEET has taken back their fleet from the City of Johannesburg.
On Wednesday, Avis confirmed the collection of its vehicles, saying: “This is due to the expiry of a full maintenance lease agreement that terminated on 31 October. Notice was provided to the City as per the agreement.”
The repossessed vehicles are part of the City’s non-specialised fleet: the cars and bakkies and trucks that city officials from all departments and entities – including police cars, City Power trucks, Joburg Water bakkies – drive around in.
The non-specialised fleet is supplied by Avis and Afrirent and compromises more than 4 000 vehicles.
The tender for fire engines and the Pikitup waste management fleet are separate from the non-specialised fleet tender.
According to ANC Johannesburg chairperson Dada Morero, who served as mayor for 25-days after the first motion of no confidence in Executive Mayor Mpho Phalatse, Avis would take back their water fleet on Thursday.
The spokesperson for the Mayoral Committee for Group Corporate and Shared Services, McKinnley Mitchell, said the issue was with the contract for the fleet, which National Treasury declared as irregular in 2020.
He added the contract was awarded to Avis and Afrirent under a tender which Treasury ordered the City to cancel and do a thorough forensic investigation.
Mitchell said the City, then governed by the ANC, did neither “and took no steps to start a new tender process”.
“We inherited this mess from the ANC: an irregular contract that had been constantly extended and no investigation done.
“An investigation is underway to establish whether Afrirent had made payments to politically linked individuals, and a simple glance at the numbers showed that the City was not getting value for money.”
News24 reported last month despite reported irregularities, the Afrirent contract was extended in April this year for a further six months, at a cost of R1.4 billion.
This despite a 2020 letter by Treasury to the late Johannesburg mayor, Geoff Makhubo, raising several serious concerns over the procurement process, and recommending the contract be declared irregular and cancelled, and ordering an investigation into the matter.
Afrirent denied any wrongdoing at the time, including allegations that cars were being duplicated in its billing.
The DA took over leadership of the city through a coalition in 2021.
Mitchell said a new tender process started in January and needed consultation with the public because it was worth more than R2 billion.
“This entire process experienced endless delays, but as soon as the multiparty government was illegally removed [in a motion of no confidence in Mayor Mpho Phalatse], the ANC wasted no time in bringing the non-specialised fleet tender to council for approval.
“Fortunately, the courts reinstated the multiparty government just in time, and we were able to stop the contract being approved by council.”
He added the City did this to allow for the forensic investigation, which Treasury ordered in 2020 to be completed, “and for us to thoroughly investigate the tender process to ensure that it was fully above board”.
The last extension of the Avis and Afrirent non-specialised fleet contract terminated at the end of October, and the City could not extend the contract.
Mitchell said the contract could not be extended while the investigation continued because the ANC in council blocked the report asking for the extension.
“Therefore, we cannot extend this contract because they stopped us from doing so in council.”
Morero denied the fleet was being removed because of anything the ANC did.
Queries around how many metro vehicles were taken back went unanswered on Thursday.
Image (Getting nowhere slowly. Xolani Fihla, JMPD spokesperson has not responded on how many cars were ‘impounded’).
