Tshwane to address Treasury concerns on Rooiwal wastewater treatment

Six months before the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal last year, Tshwane metro initiated a disciplinary hearing against five employees implicated in its forensic report into the failed Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant upgrades.

The action was initiated in November 2022 and the following month Tshwane opened a case of contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act regarding procurement processes in awarding the tender in 2019 to ANC benefactor Edwin Sodi’s companies, NJR Projects and Blackhead Consulting and his partners CMS Water Engineering.

Last month, Hawks spokesperson Col Katlego Mogale told Sowetan that the matter is still under investigation. According to the city, Sodi and his partners only did 60% of the work for the R292m tender.

Tshwane identified five employees who allegedly flouted the laws in the awarding of the tender. They 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 electricity department and Dumisani Gubuza, the divisional head of water and sanitation.

Their disciplinary hearings were concluded on March 13 and the city has since appealed the outcome. 

Tshwane said the officials were charged for being grossly negligent and/derelict in the performance of their duties and that their conduct subsequently led to a breach of various legislation, policies and codes of conduct. They faced four charges but were only found guilty for evaluating the winning bidder on 1.4m belt presses width when the specification required 2m width.  

The chairperson of the hearings recommended that the officials be suspended for one month without pay but the city disagreed with the ruling and took it for review at the labour court. The officials were suspended on April 19 and will remain suspended pending the review ruling.

Following the cholera outbreak last year, on June 15 Tshwane announced that it had given Sodi and CMS Water Engineering 14 days to respond to their intention to blacklist them.

On July 14, Sowetan reported that Sodi blamed the late Rudolf Schoeman, a director of CMS Water Engineering, for his alleged fraudulent conduct which delayed the competition of Rooiwal.

"The consequence of the fraud perpetrated by Mr Schoeman resulted in NJR laying criminal charges with the SAPS and pursuant to an investigation, Mr Schoeman was arrested and charged with fraud."

Last September, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) said it was investigating the awarding of the tender and the people implicated.

Last week, the SIU told Sowetan that it had completed its investigation.

"We have now acquired the services of quantity surveyor so that it can indicate to us if it [the Rooiwal project] was value for money," said spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

In February, Tshwane reinforced its effort to bar Sodi and wrote to the National Treasury to restrict his companies NJR Projects and Blackhead Consulting from doing business with the state for 10 years. On March 27, Treasury communicated with Tshwane but said it has not received any further responses from the city.

The communication outlined the process the city must follow before Treasury can publish the restriction against Sodi.

On April 25, Tshwane CFO Gareth Mnisi confirmed to Sowetan that they were in the process of concluding a comprehensive response to Treasury and that this will include a session to understand the deficiencies in the city's initial submission to Treasury.

"The city can further provide surety that the blacklisting process will proceed subsequent to addressing the areas of concern which has been raised by Treasury."

Asked to share reasons Treasury gave for not endorsing the restriction – Mnisi said these were confidential.

"I wouldn’t want to put the city in a precarious position taking into account the sensitivity of this matter," said Mnisi.