TSHWANE Mayor Cilliers Brink has blamed the outbreak of cholera that led to the death of more than 30 people in the city on the ANC’s history of cadre deployment.
He also attributed the outbreak to the alleged irregular awarding of a R295 million tender by the city’s DA-led coalition to controversial businessman Edwin Sodi.
Tshwane’s Hammanskraal communities were the most affected by the cholera outbreak, as in one of the families three members perished in what Brink linked to the years of ANC’s cadre deployment policy that continued to haunt the city.
While Sodi could not be located for comment, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu rejected Brink’s claims, saying that the DA has failed to run Tshwane and that its service delivery discriminates against black areas.
Bhengu said the ANC could not be blamed for the contract that the city under the DA awarded to Sodi.
“The DA has been in government there since 2016 and today is 2023. Who awarded that contract, was it not the DA? Where was the ANC?” Bhengu asked.
She said that if Brink claims the contract was awarded by supply chain managers deployed by the ANC, it meant that Brink suggests that DA and its partners were in power only by name.
“If you run the administration as a party that has secured enough votes, you make sure that it is your governance prescripts and framework that guides whatever gets done by way of financial governance and supply chain management,” she said.
Brink, who is the DA mayor, made the allegations during a press briefing where he was giving an update on the disease outbreak, which he linked to the city’s years of neglect.
The source of cholera in the municipality has been traced to the local Apies River which was contaminated by spillage from the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant, which processes 35% of the city’s wastewater.
Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting company was in 2019 awarded the tender to upgrade the plant to prevent spillage from running into the river.
“The cause (of the disease) is the under-performance of the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant that releases effluent into the Apies River that is of such poor quality that it cannot be treated according to acceptable standards,” he said.
He said while water tests have not detected cholera in the tap water, it had been discovered that the river was contaminated.
“For many years the people of Hammanskraal have not had potable water. That is to say, water that is suitable for drinking and cooking,” said Brink.
Brink said he has since asked city manager Johann Mettler to ensure an SIU investigation into the matter (awarding the tender to Sodi).
“That would of course depend on the presidential proclamation, which we also support.
“But the question of course arises, how did this rigged tender happen under a coalition government of the DA and our partners?” Brink asked.
He said the plant has over the years run out of capacity as a result of population growth in Tshwane.
Sodi, who was implicated in the State Capture Commission, was granted R150 000 bail by the Randburg Magistrate's Court early last year after being charged with the attempted murder of his wife and friend. Together with former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and others, Sodi is also facing a string of corruption charges in relation to the Free State province’s asbestos scam.
Brink said the state of the city’s neglect dates back to early 2000, but this continued even after the ANC had been unseated by the coalition of opposition parties, DA, Freedom Front Plus, ACDP and Cope, in 2016.
Brink expressed disappointment about the state of the city.
“The people rightly do not expect this to happen in the capital city of the country, a metropolitan city, especially after so many high-level promises were made, and especially after there was a change of government in 2016,” he said.
He said although Sodi was well known for political connections, none of his connections could be traced to the parties that govern the city through coalition.
“Mayors and councillors don’t serve on tender specification, evaluation and adjudication committees, (and) in fact we are barred by law from even attending these meetings as observers, let alone dictating or interfering in tender decisions,” he said.
He said Sodi had been able to encroach on the city’s system and win the rigged tender because the DA-led coalition had failed to “uncapture the city’s administration” as there were officials from the past who continued to serve under the new administration.
“Through cadre development, a policy that was deliberately set up to demolish the Constitutional divide between party and State, Tshwane and its supply chain management process had for many years been rendered defenceless against a network of corruption,” he said.
The mayor admitted that he did not have evidence that would lead to the prosecution of the corrupt officials, but he said he could point to the number of irregular tenders that have been given out by the municipality’s supply chain management division in the past 15 years, “including smart (electricity) meters payout contract of 2012 (worth R950 million), the Moipone Fleet contract of 2015, the Tshwane Broadband contract, the GladAfrica contract (worth R12 billion) and so it goes on”.
“When the Auditor-General refers to R10 billion and accumulated irregular expenditure, much of this includes money spent on contracts as far back as 2013 and its investigations haven’t been finalised in terms of Section 32 of the MFMA (Municipal Management Act).
“We have failed to break up a network of politically-affiliated officials that continued to work in government, even after there has been a change in power and a change of several mayors,” said Brink.