Sodi pockets more millions from another failed project

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02-06-2023
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Sowetan Live
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'The contract was terminated due to poor performance'

ANC benefactor Edwin Sodi’s company has had yet another tender terminated for poor performance, but he had already pocketed R130m on the incomplete project.

The department of public works yesterday confirmed that it had dumped Sodi’s company NJR Projects which was awarded a R282m contract to upgrade and extend the 65-bed Parys Correctional Services in the Free State to a 240-bed facility.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), as the implementing agent, awarded the contract to upgrade the prison facility in 2018. The department confirmed the deal was terminated in February with only 40% of the work done.

Sodi’s NJR Projects rebranded to G-5 Group in 2021.

“The contract was terminated due to poor performance. There was no visible prospects of the company improving in the foreseeable future and hence we got to a decision to terminate the service of this company,” said department spokesperson Thamsanqa Mchunu yesterday.

Sodi did not respond to Sowetan messages and calls seeking comment.

The cancellation comes on the back of another failed project linked to Sodi’s companies in Tshwane for the upgrade of Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant in Tshwane in 2019, which was also terminated for poor performance last year. The failed Rooiwal project has possible links to the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal, which has claimed the lives of more than 20 people.

The extension of Rooiwal’s capacity would have improved the quality of drinking water in the cholera-hit Hammanskraal area.

Last year, the state capture commission found that the state did not get value for money from the R255m project awarded to a joint venture between another of Sodi’s companies, Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading, who were hired to eradicate asbestos from homes in Free State. The matter is still before courts.