GPG spends almost R25 million on Edwin Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting company, implicated in state capture

26 November 2020

It is extremely concerning to note that Blackhead Consulting owned by Edwin Sodi, has been awarded numerous contracts by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development

With Blackhead Consulting in the spotlight recently for the millions of rand made in profit from an asbestos audit project, without having the certification needed to handle asbestos, and a further R100 million profit made in Gauteng, from an asbestos project the company did prior to the Free State one, the Democratic Alliance (DA) submitted questions to all Gauteng government departments to establish which departments awarded tenders to the company and details of the tenders that were awarded.

The Department of Social Development indicated that they had used Blackhead Consulting through the Department of Infrastructure Development as the implementing agent, while work was also done for the Department of Health and Education.

According to the MEC for Infrastructure Development and Property Management, Tasneem Motara, Blackhead Consulting is responsible for the following projects:

Barcelona Primary School

Adelaide LSEN School

Vereenigeng Gymnasium Secondary School

Randfontein High School

Khutso Primary School AET

Tiyelani Secondary School

Thutong Junior Secondary School

Desmond Tutu Child and Youth Care Centre

Lehae Community Health Centre

KalafongHospitalThe following amounts were paid for each of these projects:

In addition to the provincial government using Blackhead Consulting, this company was also awarded the tender for the Rooiwal Sewer Plant Phase 1, despite not being a registered vendor for the City of Tshwane in January this year.

It is extremely concerning that the Gauteng Provincial Government has awarded several tenders to this company given the revelations at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

If Premier David Makhura is serious about running a transparent and ethical government, then he will ask the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate all tenders that have been awarded to this company since 2014. If it is then indeed found that these tenders were not awarded fairly and transparently, the Premier must take action against all officials implicated and have Blackhead Consulting added as a restricted supplier on the National Treasury’s database.

The DA is planning oversight visits to the projects mentioned as only R25 million out of R517 million budgeted has been spent to date, as we need to establish the status of each projects, especially the Vereeniging Gymnasium Secondary School tender which was awarded in 2016 and is still in the planning phase.

Issued by Adriana Randall, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Finance and e-Government, 26 November 2020