Tshwane city manager Moeketsi Mosola has been suspended.

A report recommending his suspension was approved by a special sitting of the Tshwane city council at a heated meeting in Pretoria on Wednesday afternoon.

ANC and DA councillors approved the report to recommend Mosola’s suspension with immediate effect. This is in relation to a lucrative tender granted to engineering consultants GladAfrica to manage the city’s entire infrastructure budget worth up to R12-billion over a three-year period.

Council Speaker Katlego Mathebe announced that the report had been approved by council before adjourning the meeting shortly after 2.30pm. The EFF had earlier walked out of council chambers‚ accusing the DA of hounding Mosola out of office.

But the ANC sided with the DA and agreed to the adoption of the report.

This means that Mosola will be sent a letter sometime on Wednesday informing him of council’s decision to suspend him with immediate effect.

He has seven days to write back to council and give reasons why the decision to suspend him should be rescinded. If council rejects his plea‚ a special investigator will be appointed to probe his decision to select GladAfrica as the sold project manager for the city’s infrastructure projects.

Earlier a brief scuffle broke out in council chambers as political parties disagreed over whether to hear the report recommending the suspension of Mosola in public or behind closed doors.

Angry ANC and EFF councillors objected to a suggestion from executive mayor Solly Msimanga to hold a special sitting to discuss the matter in camera.

Problems started when council speaker Katlego Mathebe appeared to agree with the suggestion that the council meeting behind closed doors.

Mathebe then called for a brief recess to take legal advice on the matter‚ but the other parties objected to her taking advice from the governance and support officer Lorette Tredaux who was in the council meeting. The parties objected to her presence and some councillors tried to force out of the council meeting saying she did not have authority to be in council or to offer legal advice.

ANC and EFF councillors protested that a matter involving the city manager was in the public interest and should be held in an open meeting.

“We pay the city manager R2.7m and the public must be taken into confidence about its finances. We are advocating that this matter must be discussed in the open and the public must know that the man we pay R2.7m is either corrupt or is vindicated by this meeting. Let’s discuss this matter in the open for the benefit of the public that pays taxes that pay this man‚” said ANC councillor George Matjila.

The matter was eventually heard in public.

The deal with GladAfrica guarantees the engineering firm at least 10% in middleman commissions for managing the city’s entire capital projects budget that goes towards the construction of roads‚ electricity substations and other infrastructure such its bus rapid system A Re Yeng.

It is not clear if this tender will also be reviewed by council.