Tshwane's blacklisting process for Edwin Sodi's companies remains stalled

The City of Tshwane's attempt to blacklist three companies, linked to businessman Edwin Sodi, from doing business with government remains pending, with no progress made to date after almost two years. 

The city had awarded a contract to a joint venture, CMS, NJR & Blackhead, to upgrade the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant, but terminated it in 2022 due to persistent project delays.

During a session with the portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Tshwane municipal manager Johann Mettler explained that the Auditor-General uncovered evidence of fraud in the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant refurbishment project, leading to its cancellation.

As a result, Mettler said, the appointed contractors were to face consequences for breaching their contracts, including blacklisting.

Last year, the city initiated a process to restrict the implicated companies from conducting business with the government by submitting a request to the National Treasury for endorsement. 

However, the Treasury identified shortcomings in the February 2, 2025, request and advised the municipality to rectify and resubmit it.

Seven months ago Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya told journalists during her visit to the Rooiwal plant that the city resubmitted the application to the Treasury.

However, the Treasury contradicted this claim, stating that the city has not submitted a revised request since receiving feedback on the initial application's shortcomings.

“The initial request submitted by the City of Tshwane was found to contain some shortcomings. The City of Tshwane, to date, has not submitted a second request to restrict the suppliers after the letter written by the National Treasury, which outlined the shortcomings in the initial process,” the Treasury said.

When questioned by the portfolio committee about the status of blacklisting Sodi's companies, Mettler attributed the delay to procedural issues encountered by the city.

“We did not diligently follow all of these steps that have to be taken and the National Treasury pointed this out to us. We went through this process again and we have also learnt from that and there is now a standard operating procedure,” he said.

He stated that the city has referred its case to the internal audit department to review and ensure compliance before submitting it to the Treasury.

“I do expect very shortly to submit to the National Treasury the full package, asking them to blacklist those three companies,” he said.

DA Tshwane caucus leader Cilliers Brink stated that a blacklisting application process was launched in 2024, based on findings by the Auditor-General and the city's forensic investigation, which exposed irregularities in the tender process for the first phase of the Rooiwal plant upgrade.

He said it is illogical that a blacklisting application has not been submitted to the Treasury despite the city initiating the process a year and a half ago.

“We fear that the delay is prejudicing the application. It also doesn’t make sense why the process is being further delayed by having the city’s internal audit department vet the application. The department has serious capacity constraints. It would make far more sense for the city to  simply obtain a senior counsel’s opinion,” Brink said.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za