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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes today’s announcement by the SIU that criminal referrals have been sent to the National Prosecuting Authority in the case of the Rooiwal Five. This is no guarantee of a successful prosecution, but nonetheless a confirmation that there is a serious case to answer.

The matter involves an irregular tender awarded to consortium with links to Edwin Sodi for the upgrade of the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant. The contactor later abandoned the project without finishing the work and a forensic report implicated officials who had served as the bid evaluation committee in the matter.

Yesterday, the DA revealed that these officials were set to return to work in the City of Tshwane. When I was mayor, the city administration suspended the Rooiwal Five pending a Labour Court application to have them dismissed.

Shortly before Christmas these officials evidently obtained a bargaining council decision uplifting their suspension. The risk, as we have pointed out, is that Tshwane is now under control of an ANC coalition. I have written to Tshwane’s city manager to ask that he takes the bargaining council decision on review, which will allow the Labour Court to deal with the matter without prejudice.

It is essential that he resists any political pressure to abandon the action which has already been undertaken.

The DA will also be tracking the progress of blacklisting Sodi and his associates from doing business with the state, a process initiated under my mayoralty.

In the meantime, we note the peculiar statement by ActionSA, the ANC’s junior partner in the Tshwane coalition, in which the party’s chairperson Michael Beaumont speaks on behalf of Tshwane mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya. As of yet, the mayor herself has said nothing about the matter.

Issued by Ald Cilliers Brink - DA Tshwane Caucus Leader