Pretoria - The Tshwane council has postponed yet again the tabling of a forensic report into allegations of corruption related to the awarding of a multimillion rand tender to refurbish the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant.
This happened on Wednesday when a virtual special council sitting was called off due to cable theft which adversely affected the connectivity for the meeting of councillors.
The Pretoria News understands that the meeting was planned to take place in-committee to look into the report commissioned by mayor Randall Williams in March, following concerns about the supply chain processes for the Phase 1 tendering of the refurbishment project.
Initially, the investigation into the tender was expected to be completed within 90 days and its report tabled on June 30, but it was delayed.
At some stage, the City attributed the delay into the investigation to a request for an external investigator to be appointed to look into the tender, triggering a supply chain process.
Last month, the City announced that it terminated a contract of the joint venture of CMS Water Projects and NJR Projects, which were appointed for Phase 1 construction in October 2019, at a value of R253 million.
According to the City, the termination followed significant problems and delays with the quality of the work on the site due to continuous stalling. The tabling of the report was postponed for the third time this week.
During a special council sitting last month, council decided that the report be deferred to the next sitting, owing to the water outage at Tshwane House.
Reacting to the report on the postponement this week, ActionSA said it suspected there were forces at play to deliberately prevent the report from seeing the light of day.
“Given that this is the third such time that this particular item has been delayed, and particularly the nature of the vandalism that led to the decision to postpone the meeting, we have reason to suspect that there are forces at work to deliberately prevent this matter from serving,” the party said. The party said the report was now scheduled to serve at the ordinary council expected to take place on September 29.
ActionSA further expressed confidence that “our coalition partners will demonstrate our collective commitment to oppose wrongdoing”.
Although the City previously put a price tag of the tender to the value of R253m, ActionSA referred to it as a R295m tender.
The party said: “Council must diligently apply itself to the contents of this forensic report in order to get to the bottom of the problem that has precluded the people of Rooiwal, Hammanskraal from gaining access to potable water for almost 18 years. This is with reference to alleged R295m tender irregularities that have delayed progress at the plant.”
The party questioned the appointment of companies owned by businessman Edwin Sodi, lamenting their lack of experience in infrastructure projects such the Rooiwal upgrade.
Sodi, along with Ace Magashule and other officials, has been charged with fraud, corruption, theft and money laundering, among other charges, in the Free State asbestos case.
“The joint venture did not have the required funds for site establishment. The City of Tshwane paid R1m upfront to float the costs of site establishment. The joint venture, in contravention of the supply chain policies of the City of Tshwane, had to be ceded R71m upfront because it lacked the resources for the initial capital outlay,” said ActionSA.
The ANC hinted the report would “apportion blame on the City’s senior officials and exempt the political principals”. “The project has bled the City of R149m and there is nothing to show for it. The ANC caucus will ensure the DA principals account equally for the mess,” said the party.
Pretoria News