Lepelle Water boss claims he was kidnapped by cops, forced to pay R2.9m

The acting CEO of Lepelle Northern Water in Limpopo say he was kidnapped and forced to pay almost R3m to a business whose R45m contract had been set aside by the high court.

The tender was awarded when Phineas Legodi was in charge of Lepelle, but he has since left under a cloud.

The victim of the alleged kidnapping is the acting CEO of Lepelle, Ahuiwi Netshidaulu. Lepelle has since hired bodyguards to protect him.

Netshidaulu, who took charge in August, said in an affidavit he was “kidnapped” by police in Polokwane last month and forced to pay R2.9m to contractor Matome Sefalafala.

This followed a high court ruling that payment to Sefalafala's company, Falaz General Trading, for the removal of hazardous waste be stopped immediately because of concerns over the cost and the manner in which the tender had been awarded.

In the affidavit, deposed to Polokwane police on November 19, Netshidaulu said he had been “arrested” in Polokwane by two police officers from Silverton, Pretoria, on November 18.

He said the officers told him he was being arrested in connection with an extortion complaint against him by Sefalafala.

Instead of taking him to a police station, he said the officers called Sefalafala and set up a meeting at a Caltex garage on the N1 outside Polokwane.

He said he was handcuffed and his cellphones taken. The officers controlled all his calls, he said.

“He [Sefalafala] said I am playing games with him. He said no-one has a problem to pay but it's only me who seems not willing to pay him.”

According to his statement, Netshidaulu was taken to Tiveka Game Lodge (30km from Polokwane) and told to call the Lepelle CFO and order her to pay R5.8m for work done by Sefalafala's company, or face arrest.

Netshidaulu initially refused but was taken to a secluded area where he agreed to pay because he feared for his life. He gave instructions for R2.9m to be paid.

He was told he would not be released until the payment had been cleared. The group then went to Midrand to get food. The payment reflected after midnight, whereupon he was released and took an Uber home.

Netshidaulu said the “kidnapping” occurred after he had met Sefalafala on November 2 when the businessman demanded payment. Since the meeting, he said, Falaz Trading began harassing him.

“This continued harassment led to my opening intimidation and abduction cases with the Polokwane police against associates of Falaz as they threatened my life,” he said in the affidavit.

The chair of the Lepelle interim board, Joe Mathebula, told the Sunday Times that the board decided not to pay any suppliers whose contracts were under dispute and investigation. Falaz had been among those.

“When we came in, there were a number of disputed contracts and we said all contracts that have been flagged should not be paid until we have satisfied ourselves as the board [that they are legitimate].

“We can't pay anything that has a court judgment, which says all proceeds must be paid back. We are trying to clean up there. People are just trying to take advantage of government and we can't allow such to continue,” said Mathebula.

Contacted by the Sunday Times, Sefalafala denied all the allegations made against him. He said he was owed “a lot of money” by Lepelle Northern Water.

“Who forced him [Netshidaulu] to call the CFO? He called me and said he will tell his CFO to pay me my money for services rendered, and they still owe me money. He has his own bond with his chairperson and they agreed that they will make my company suffer. I don't know why.

“All those facts he put there are false so I'll open a case of defamation of character against him,” said Sefalafala.

He said he deserved to be paid because he had rendered his services.

Last year Sefalafala was the victim of crime. In December 2019, he offered a R100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of men who shot him in the chest and shoulder while he was leaving a restaurant at about 2.30am. He was hit despite his bodyguard trying to protect him.

One of the police officers involved in Netshidaulu's “arrest”, David Mkhabela, told the Sunday Times the intention was to arrest Netshidaulu but he had requested to speak to Sefalafala and agreed to make a payment.

“He said he was an important person who can't be arrested and that he can pay and we agreed for him to call Falaz and they met. At the Caltex garage they spoke and agreed on something.

“We did not want to arrest him and get him into trouble over something that they could resolve. We did not kidnap him. They even drank together at Cubana in Midrand. They seemed to know each other and we said they must resolve their issues.”

He showed the Sunday Times video footage he took with his cellphone of the two men sitting together and eating at Cubana.

Repeated attempts over the past three weeks to get say from police were unsuccessful.

Limpopo police spokesperson Brig Motlafela Mojapelo said the cases of intimidation and abduction were opened in Polokwane but had been referred to Gauteng.

A police spokesperson in Gauteng, Kay Makhubela, said referring the cases to Gauteng was impossible because the alleged crimes had been committed in Limpopo.

Despite the police being given the case numbers, no formal say was made.

An anonymous whistle-blower raised alarm bells in an e-mail to President Cyril Ramaphosa on August 25 2018, alleging corruption regarding the awarding of the tender to Falaz.

This set in motion a court application by one of the losing bidders, Tshenolo Waste Limited. The Polokwane high court set aside the contract in November last year after judge George Phatudi said it had been awarded unlawfully and in an uncompetitive manner.

According to his judgment, Lepelle Northern Water initially budgeted just over R876,000 a year for the three years of the contract. This would have cost the state-owned Lepelle about R2.6m in total.

Falaz's first bid was for R52m, but was later reduced to R45m.

In his judgment, Phatudi said the reason given for Tshenolo's exclusion from the bidding process was “too artificial to contemplate”. It was said that Tshenolo did not have the required experience.

He also found that Lepelle Northern Water negotiated the price only with Falaz and not the other bidders. He said the process was “devoid of all vestige of fairness”.

“No measure of justification, not even by figment of imagination, could in any event have clothed an inherently illicit bidding process with rationality nor legality to absolve Lepelle Northern Water's conduct from blame,” the judge said.

Legodi was suspended in June by the interim board, installed by water & sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu. The board laid a criminal complaint against Legodi in July. He is being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit and his pension has been frozen. He resigned in August.