Tshwane officials in Rooiwal saga approached city for settlement: SIU

Some of the five City of Tshwane officials found to have irregularly awarded a R292m tender to a joint venture involving tender baron Edwin Sodi’s companies approached the city to have their services terminated.

They also requested a settlement agreement from the city.

This was revealed by the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) Gauteng head Sagren Reddy during a briefing to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on its investigation into various municipalities.

READ | Sodi’s Rooiwal ‘rescue plan’ was a nonstarter – Tshwane

The reasons for the request by the employees are not known, and it is not yet known whether an agreement was reached. However, Sowetan reached out to the city for a comment on this, and it will be added once received.

According to Reddy, during their investigation they found there were additional charges that the officials should face in their disciplinary hearing over the R292m tender.

The implicated officials are:

• Thembeka Mphefu, the divisional head of supply chain management;
• Frans Manganye, the divisional head of electricity planning and development;
• Stephens Notoane, the group head of utility services;
• Justice Sekokotla, the director of the electricity department; and
• Dumisani Gubuza, the divisional head of water and sanitation.

The failed upgrade of the Rooiwal plant has been blamed for the deaths of more than 20 people in Hammanskraal during a cholera outbreak in 2023

Reddy said they met with Tshwane city manager on April 23, who said the officials were still on suspension. “However, with the additional charges that the SIU had provided, he informed us that the hearings are coming up soon,” he said.

“Some of them approached the municipality to make some sort of settlement agreement so that their services can be terminated.”

The officials made up the bid evaluation committee, which allowed Sodi’s companies — NJR Projects and Blackhead Consulting — to bid and win a R292m tender in a joint venture without meeting basic requirements.

The contract was terminated by the city because of poor performance.

ALSO READ | Tshwane to address Treasury concerns on Rooiwal wastewater treatment

The failed upgrade of the Rooiwal plant has been blamed for the deaths of more than 20 people in Hammanskraal during a cholera outbreak in 2023.

During the briefing in parliament, the unit said it has made 13 disciplinary hearing referrals in relation to Rooiwal. It has also referred six criminal cases involving 31 people to the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority.

SIU acting head Leonard Lekhetho said their investigation had uncovered:

• procurement irregularities and misrepresentations, resulting in the irregular appointment of the contractors;
• fraudulent misrepresentations in the contractor’s bid;
• fraudulent certification of records;
• contraventions of CIDB regulations;
• under-declaration of income by the contractor;
• irregular expenditure of R147.8m incurred; as well as
• non-compliance in respect of the performance bond.

The City Tshwane has been pushing for the dismissal of the employees since a forensic report found they ignored red flags, which would have eliminated Sodi’s companies from the bidding process

Lekgetho said the referrals include:

• one administrative referral to Sars which contains two companies for under-declaration of income & noncompliance;
• one referral containing 17 administrative referrals to the Construction Industry Development Board for non-compliance
• an administrative referral to the City of Tshwane for the National Treasury blacklisting process; and
• one administrative referral to CIPC for delinquency declaration.

Lekgetho said 65 role players were also identified for high-level profiling, and of those, 27 officials were red-flagged for lifestyle analysis and nine external parties were red-flagged for financial analysis of suspicious transactions.

The city has been pushing for the dismissal of the employees since a forensic report found they ignored red flags, which would have eliminated Sodi’s companies from the bidding process. However, a disciplinary hearing found them guilty on one charge out of four they were facing.

In November the labour court referred their disciplinary to a new independent chairperson after it found the process that led to them being found guilty on only one charge to be flawed.

Sowetan