Contractors who paid bribes for hail damage repair tender in court

A company, which won a tender to fix damaged homes in Tshwane allegedly paid four human settlement department officials over R400,000 in bribes.

Three of the five accused appeared at the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sitting in Palm Ridge this week.

“Cecil Jonas, Marumo Rapetswa and Nnyawadzeni Maguga appeared in court on Monday. They are facing charges of corruption and money laundering relating to the project of fixing houses damaged by hail storms in numerous places in Pretoria,” said Phindi Mojondwane, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)

According to the charge sheet, Adi Investment (Pty) Ltd, through its director, Reyneck Khoza paid gratification money to the four officials between November 2014 and June 2016. 

Maguga, 55, a deputy director quality assurance inspector at the time, was paid R310,000 while his colleague Rapetswa,52, a quality assurance inspector was paid R50,000. Cecil Jones, 59, deputy director in the Tshwane department of human settlements was paid R20,000 and Tiny Selotoane, who was employed as an administrative clerk by the department, was paid at least R28,000. 

Khoza and Adi Investments are listed as accused 5 and 6 in the charge sheet.

According to the NPA on March 10, 2014, a request to nominate contractors for rectification work of the houses damaged by hail storms in Soshanguve, Mamelodi, Nellmapius, Hammanskraal and Refiloe was presented.

Adi Investment was paid R490,902,500 as a consultant in the project. 

“The bid adjudication ocmmittee referred the matter to Supply Chain Management (SCM) to source suitable suppliers. The nine contractors were appointed. The contractors were said to be all possessing the correct CIDB grading (6GB) and above. The contractors were supposed to be tax and NHBRC-compliant,” read the sheet. 

No proper tender process was followed. 

“Three professional resource teams (PRTs) companies were also appointed. Marumo Rapetswa was one of the PRTs,” the sheet read. 

The charge sheet said the Tshwane region misrepresented the facts in the submission made to BAC on March 10, 2014 by stating that all contractors submitted to BAC were tax and NHBRC-compliant. 

“The tender process was not followed in the procurement of the nine contractors. The department did not source any bid proposals from the three companies and the evaluation process as outlined in supply chain management ( was not followed,” read the sheet. 

“The department spent approximately R500m on the project, however, the service providers were not contracted following proper procurement processes and some of the work was not completed. An investigation by the Johannesburg Serious Commercial Crime Investigation revealed that the trio received gratification from certain service providers involved in the project and prejudiced the department of R500m actual loss,” said police spokesperson Col Katlego Mogale.

The accused were granted R10,000 bail each and are expected back in court in March.

Gauteng department of human settlements spokesperson Tahir Sema said the allegations of corruption were reported to the department’s anti-fraud and corruption unit by a whistleblower.

“These projects emanate from 2014 and have not been continuing since. Any damaged RDP’s and related fall under the incomplete and abandoned projects, which are being addressed by the department through a new and separate process,” said Sema.