Tshwane acts on Sodi contract sanction
Five senior officials suspended with full pay as city heads to Labour Court for harsher sanction
The City of Tshwane is pushing for harsher sanctions against five senior officials over the appointment of ANC benefactor Edwin Sodi’s company in a botched R292m wastewater treatment plant contract.
The officials, who underwent a year-long disciplinary hearing, were slapped with one month’s suspension without pay.
But the city is not happy and is headed to the labour court, seeking a harsher sanction.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is awaiting the report of a quantity surveyor as an attempt is made to recover wasted public funds after the contract was terminated with only 60% of the upgrade work done at the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant.
The contractors had already pocketed R292m.
The City announced yesterday it had placed five senior officials on precautionary suspension over the tender award.
The five are Stephens Notoane, group head for water and sanitation; Dumisani Gubuza, divisional head for water and sanitation; Thembeka Mphefu, divisional head for supply chain management; Justice Sekokotla, director for energy and electricity; and Frans Manganye, divisional head for energy and electricity.
Their attorney Sekele Msiza said: “We can’t discuss the matter with you as we don’t have instructions from our clients to comment.”
Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the city would review the decision of the hearing. “We are in the process of filing an application to the labour court. We are appealing the ruling of the chair of the disciplinary hearing.”
He said the city was “disappointed and disagreed with the findings of the chair” and sought legal advice.
“The legal opinion suggested that the five implicated officials ought to have been dismissed,” Bokaba said.
Three companies CMS, NJR and Sodi’s Blackhead JV had only completed 60% of the work before the contract was cancelled because of poor performance last year.
The wastewater plant has been the source of poor-quality water in Hammanskraal and surrounding areas, forcing the area to rely on water tankers to supply drinking water.
Bokaba said the city believed that the officials’ “continued presence at the workplace will be detrimental to the stability of the municipality”.
He said the city issued the five officials with an intended letter of suspension on Wednesday, and they were afforded the opportunity to make representations on why they shouldn’t be suspended.
“A final determination was made [on Friday] to place them on precautionary suspension with full pay,” Bokaba said.
A forensic investigation report into the matter, commissioned by the city in 2022, found that the “CMS, NJR and Blackhead JV was evaluated for functionality despite them not meeting the eligibility criteria. Blackhead Consulting was not registered as a contractor with the Construction Industry Development Board”.
The report recommended the officials should face criminal charges for their part in allowing irregular tender procedures that cost nearly R292m.
The five were members of a bid evaluating committee (BEC) whose failure to follow proper processes meant they were “liable” for the irregular expenditure.
The SIU, which has been investigating since September, has indicated that its investigations were now complete and only a report by a quantity surveyor appointed to assess work done was awaited.
“The report from the quantity surveyor is not here yet; once that is done we can finalise our report and send it to the president,” said SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
He said they investigated the way the contract was awarded and the work done “to probe if it’s worth the money that has been paid. We need to be able to say this is what was done and conclude [using the quantity surveyor’s report] if it’s worth the money spent”.
Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorising the SIU to investigate allegations of maladministration and corruption in the Tshwane metro relating to the tender.
Tshwane City manager Johann Mettler said the five would remain on suspension pending a review of the ruling. “The officials are senior employees of the municipality and the majority of them on the BEC are engineers, and ought to have applied themselves properly when evaluating the tender.”