The City of Tshwane's attempt to blacklist companies linked to businessman Edwin Sodi encounters obstacles as the National Treasury disputes the submission of a revised request. Businessman and companies implicated in a contract to refurbish the Rooiwal WasteWater Treatment Plant are not yet blacklisted from doing business with the public sector. Picture: Masi Losi/ Independent Media
RAPULA MOATSHE
The City of Tshwane’s bid to push for the blacklisting of companies linked to businessman Edwin Sodi from doing business with the government appears to have hit a snag.
This is after the National Treasury disputed recent claims by Mayor Nasiphi Moya that a revised request for blacklisting parties implicated in a tender for refurbishing Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant had been submitted to the Treasury.
The City had awarded a contract to a joint venture, CMS, NJR & Blackhead to upgrade the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works, but it was terminated in 2022 due to intermittent delays to the project.
Last year, the City launched a process to restrict Sodi or his affiliated companies from doing business with the government by submitting a request to the National Treasury to endorse the restriction.
However, the Treasury identified some shortcomings in the request dated February 2, 2025, advising the municipality to rectify it and resubmit.
Moya recently visited the Rooiwal plant, where she was queried about the status of the City's request to blacklist the companies implicated in the controversy.
She said: “We submitted as the City to the National Treasury because only the National Treasury can do the blacklisting. Then the National Treasury came back to us saying there are some things we didn’t include in our submission. We have included those and resubmitted them to the National Treasury. Now we are all waiting for the National Treasury to say whether they are proceeding with the blacklisting. That is where we are but the part that was supposed to be done by the City is being done.”
But, the Treasury said the City has not submitted a revised request since it received feedback on the initial application's flaws.
“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.
The institution further shed some light on its role in restricting suppliers, saying it essentially, does not make the decisions themselves, but instead review the process followed by the City of Tshwane to restrict suppliers.
“The National Treasury does not make decisions but rather assesses the process that was followed to restrict suppliers, which has been conducted by the City of Tshwane. If all the steps in the restriction process have been done correctly, then National Treasury adds the suppliers to the restricted/blacklisted supplier’s database,” it said.
After the first request was declined the City went back to the drawing board, saying it was resolute in its endeavour to impose restrictions on companies in question from doing business with the public sector.
The City said it formally notified the implicated companies of its intention to prohibit them from conducting business with the government, via a letter dated May 30, 2025
The implicated companies were granted a 14-day window to provide reasons why they should not be blacklisted, but they failed to submit a response within the stipulated time-frame.
In a media statement last year, Municipal manager Johann Mettler said: “We will be writing to the National Treasury today (July 19, 2024) to inform them that the joint venture has not responded to us yet and that the deadline has passed, and for them to assess our request and make a determination.”
rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za
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