The City of Tshwane says no requests have been made by five of its officials implicated in the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant saga to reach a settlement agreement.
The officials were found to have irregularly awarded a R292m tender to a joint venture involving tender baron Edwin Sodi’s companies.
On Wednesday the SIU told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that some of the officials approached the city for a settlement agreement and to have their services terminated.
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 SIU was briefing Scopa on its investigations into various municipalities.
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
Sowetan reached out to the city to get clarity on who had made the alleged request to be terminated from service and the reasons behind that.
In its response the City of Tshwane said: “No requests were received.”
However, SIU spokesperson Selby Makgotho told Sowetan on Thursday that they had received the information about the requests from sources within the city.
“Information regarding any settlement requests made by the five officials was obtained from a source within the city during our investigation,” he said.
READ | Sodi’s Rooiwal ‘rescue plan’ was a nonstarter – Tshwane
“During its investigation, the SIU presented additional charges and evidence against these five officials to the city manager, leading to the continuation of their suspension.”
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.
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.
ALSO READ | Tshwane to address Treasury concerns on Rooiwal wastewater treatment
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
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