Director of Blackhead consulting, Edwin Sodi at the State Capture Commision in Braamfontein, 29 September 2020. Picture: Neil McCartney
The Zondo commission has recommended that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) lay criminal charges against businessman Edwin Sodi, one of the central figures in the R255 million Free State asbestos scandal.
In 2015, the Free State human settlements department had awarded the asbestos audit contract to Sodi’s company, Blackhead Consulting, and Diamond Hill Trading, which was owned by Ignatius “Igo” Mpambani.
Mpambani was shot dead in Sandton in April 2018.
It was later revealed that only R21 million worth of work was actually done. The work was also outsourced to another company that had experience with asbestos eradication.
In the fourth part of the state capture report, released on Friday, Zondo said: “This was not a Free State Asbestos Project. It was a Free State Asbestos Project Debacle.”
The Chief Justice recommended that Sodi and Blackhead Consulting should face corruption charges.
It also recommended that Sodi and Blackhead Consulting be charged for fraud after the businessman and his company made false representations to the Free State Department of Human Settlements about his experience, qualifications and skills needed for the removal of asbestos.
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Former Director-General of the national Department of Human Settlements Thabane Zulu is also in Zondo’s crosshairs.
Sodi is alleged to have paid R600,000 to a car dealership in Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, for the benefit of Zulu.
Favours for Sodi and Blackhead Consulting were allegedly expected in return.
Corruption charges are recommended for Zulu as well.
Former Free State head of housing, Timothy Mokhesi, is also in the firing line.
Mokhesi is alleged to have received R600,000 into a trust account by Sodi and Blackhead Consulting. That money was to go towards a property in Bloemfontein owned by Mokhesi.
Legal action and investigations are suggested for Mokhesi. The Chief Justice also recommended that Mokhesi be investigated for contraventions of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) for concluding the deal with Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading.
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Zondo said the asbestos eradication project was a scam from its conception.
“There is every indication that from the very beginning this asbestos audit project was always intended to unlawfully benefit a certain business consortium and that those financial benefits were extended to at least the head of the department of human settlements in the Free State, and the Director-General of the Department of Human Settlements.”
Despite being charged in the asbestos scandal, suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule is not mentioned in this part of Zondo’s report.
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