Tbilisi mayor must apologise, resign – UNM’s Gotsiridze

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze must apologise and resign following the recent electrocution incident in newly renovated Vake Park that killed a minor, the United National Movement MP Roman Gotsiridze said on Wednesday.  

“When you go and cut ribbons and shout on TV that you did something good and you write points for doing a good project, for example opening a bridge, if this project is bad, then you get negative points, and if a tragedy happens, you have to apologise and leave”, Gotsiridze said. 

The head of Tbilisi City Hall Environmental Protection Service, Giga Gigashvili, resigned on Wednesday due to the deadly incident in a fountain of Vake Park, which claimed the life of one minor and injured two others on October 13.

Gigashvili cited “moral responsibility” for his move as his deputy was among the nine individuals arrested in the case for professional neglect. 

Kaladze said that he was ready to resign if his fault was revealed. 

The head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, said that the opposition’s demands for Kaladze quitting was “pure speculation”, as “a concrete violation” [an exposed wire] led to the tragedy, “with no systemic fault detected”. 

The investigation said that workers damaged an electric wire during the renovation work, while the Tbilisi City Hall official and contractor and subcontractor firms had shown professional neglect and had not rechecked the work. 

The interior ministry also accused a contractor firm and its hired company of forgery of documents for the handover of the work to Tbilisi city hall, which said that the works had been conducted in accordance with mandatory regulations.