A controversial company with links to late businessman Sandile Majali is taking the City of Tshwane to court over a R122 million closed circuit television tender it lost to a rival bidding company
The matter between Omega Risk Solutions and the Tshwane Metro will be heard on March 14 and 15 before the Pretoria high court.
The CCTV system in question forms part of the Pretoria security network aimed at protecting leaders in government as well as visiting dignitaries, tourists and the public.
But a cursory glance at the profile of Omega makes it an unlikely guardian of the capital's security network.
The man at the helm of Omega, chief executive Alex de Witt, is a former SADF colonel.
About five years ago, 16 of the company's employees were reportedly arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on suspicion of plotting a coup.
The company was quick to deny that it was involved in any mercenary activity in the DRC after the men were later released.
The company's relationship with Majali, who was found dead in his hotel room in Sandton last December, started in 2004.
At the time of his death, Majali's house already belonged to De Witt through his other company, which was bought as early as 2007.
So when Majali put up the house as security to secure bail, he was actually committing fraud. This, De Witt allegedly claims, he was unaware of. He had cut ties with Majali a few good years before the controversial businessman's death.
But according to Majali's lawyer John Ngcebetsha, his client still owned a 25percent stake in Omega at the time of his death.
While Majali first came into the limelight with his R11million donation to the ANC after his sanction-busting oil dealings with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, Omega would make its own footprint in Iraq after the US-led invasion.
According to reports, Iraq at the time was fertile ground for private security firms employing thousands of foot soldiers to guard officials, oil wells, government buildings and banks.
Omega was a player here with such private security companies as Halliburton, DynCorp, Global Risk Strategies, Edinburgh Risk Inc, Blackwater and others. With the potential to earn as much as $1000 (about R7200) a day, many operatives saw this booming business as the proverbial offer not to be refused.
In 2004 Omega was losing men in Iraq. Johan Botha and Louis Campher died when their convoy came under fire while they were travelling between construction sites near the then volatile capital Baghdad.
Other South Africans not connected to Omega also died in the war that toppled Saddam.
The Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies had warned at the time that "any person in Iraq runs a very high risk of being killed".
But the spoils of the war were too great and outweighed the risks.
According to estimates from the then Foreign Affairs department, now International Relations and Co-operation, there were more than 4000 South Africans employed in Iraq at the time.
At 38 casualties by October 10 2010, South Africa had the third highest number of private military contractors who had died in Iraq. Among them Francois Strydom, who was killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad, were linked to Omega.
Omega's name cropped up in Parliament in 2007 when the former DA leader Tony Leon asked if the Department of Foreign Affairs used the services of private security firms. Paid a whopping R1486487, Omega was almost the highest paid firm used by the department.
In 2009 The Herald reported that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality had decided to terminate the contract of Omega to monitor the CCTV cameras in the CBD with effect from December of that year.
Granted Omega are not small boys in the hi-tech surveillance industry. Their Technology Solutions managing director bragged that they had "provided a system to the City of Johannesburg that is double the size of the previous CCTV system, but is only at 75percent of the cost of the previous system".
But they carry a lot of baggage that they hope to convince the court with when Case No 27707/2010 comes before court on March 14 that it should - and must - not count against them.
This is despite the fact that an audit report had said Omega's bid for the Tshwane job was rejected because "it did not comply with tender conditions and misrepresented facts to influence the awarding of the tender".
R122m tender row
A controversial company with links to late businessman Sandile Majali is taking the City of Tshwane to court over a R122 million closed circuit television tender it lost to a rival bidding company
The matter between Omega Risk Solutions and the Tshwane Metro will be heard on March 14 and 15 before the Pretoria high court.
The CCTV system in question forms part of the Pretoria security network aimed at protecting leaders in government as well as visiting dignitaries, tourists and the public.
But a cursory glance at the profile of Omega makes it an unlikely guardian of the capital's security network.
The man at the helm of Omega, chief executive Alex de Witt, is a former SADF colonel.
About five years ago, 16 of the company's employees were reportedly arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on suspicion of plotting a coup.
The company was quick to deny that it was involved in any mercenary activity in the DRC after the men were later released.
The company's relationship with Majali, who was found dead in his hotel room in Sandton last December, started in 2004.
At the time of his death, Majali's house already belonged to De Witt through his other company, which was bought as early as 2007.
So when Majali put up the house as security to secure bail, he was actually committing fraud. This, De Witt allegedly claims, he was unaware of. He had cut ties with Majali a few good years before the controversial businessman's death.
But according to Majali's lawyer John Ngcebetsha, his client still owned a 25percent stake in Omega at the time of his death.
While Majali first came into the limelight with his R11million donation to the ANC after his sanction-busting oil dealings with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, Omega would make its own footprint in Iraq after the US-led invasion.
According to reports, Iraq at the time was fertile ground for private security firms employing thousands of foot soldiers to guard officials, oil wells, government buildings and banks.
Omega was a player here with such private security companies as Halliburton, DynCorp, Global Risk Strategies, Edinburgh Risk Inc, Blackwater and others. With the potential to earn as much as $1000 (about R7200) a day, many operatives saw this booming business as the proverbial offer not to be refused.
In 2004 Omega was losing men in Iraq. Johan Botha and Louis Campher died when their convoy came under fire while they were travelling between construction sites near the then volatile capital Baghdad.
Other South Africans not connected to Omega also died in the war that toppled Saddam.
The Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies had warned at the time that "any person in Iraq runs a very high risk of being killed".
But the spoils of the war were too great and outweighed the risks.
According to estimates from the then Foreign Affairs department, now International Relations and Co-operation, there were more than 4000 South Africans employed in Iraq at the time.
At 38 casualties by October 10 2010, South Africa had the third highest number of private military contractors who had died in Iraq. Among them Francois Strydom, who was killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad, were linked to Omega.
Omega's name cropped up in Parliament in 2007 when the former DA leader Tony Leon asked if the Department of Foreign Affairs used the services of private security firms. Paid a whopping R1486487, Omega was almost the highest paid firm used by the department.
In 2009 The Herald reported that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality had decided to terminate the contract of Omega to monitor the CCTV cameras in the CBD with effect from December of that year.
Granted Omega are not small boys in the hi-tech surveillance industry. Their Technology Solutions managing director bragged that they had "provided a system to the City of Johannesburg that is double the size of the previous CCTV system, but is only at 75percent of the cost of the previous system".
But they carry a lot of baggage that they hope to convince the court with when Case No 27707/2010 comes before court on March 14 that it should - and must - not count against them.
This is despite the fact that an audit report had said Omega's bid for the Tshwane job was rejected because "it did not comply with tender conditions and misrepresented facts to influence the awarding of the tender".
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