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The ghost of Rooiwal continues to haunt broke City of Tshwane

Details

tshwane thumb100 The Citizen reports that nine months after the City of Tshwane suspended five senior officials with pay for their roles in the irregular award of the Rooiwal tender, it has been ordered to pay them collectively more than R1.3 million in consolation.

The five must also be allowed to return to work by 20 January. According to a bargaining council ruling, the suspensions were “capricious and arbitrary”, and a press release issued by the city at the time “caused irreparable harm to the dignity, reputation and social status” of the five officials. The consolation award equals two months’ salary for each and varies between R206,000 and R314,000. The tender for upgrading the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant was awarded in 2019 to NJR Projects and Blackhead Consulting in a joint venture (JV) with CMS Water Engineering. The JV later abandoned the project, and the city then terminated the contract for non-performance. A subsequent forensic report found that the JV was non-compliant and should have been disqualified from the bidding process. It recommended disciplinary action against the five officials. The officials remained in their posts during the disciplinary process. They were found guilty on only one of the four charges against them, and the chair of the disciplinary panel imposed a one-month suspension without pay for each. The city then suspended them with pay and issued the offensive press statement. According to the ruling, suspensions are governed by a bargaining council collective agreement. The agreement does not provide for suspensions post-disciplinary processes and limits suspensions to a period of three months, with the possibility of extending them for a further three months. In the Rooiwal case, the suspensions did not comply with the requirements.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Antoinette Slabbert at The Citizen
  • Lees ook, Rooiwal-vyf-saak na NVG verwys, by Maroela Media


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