The Sunday Times can reveal that Sodi’s company, NJR Projects, now known as the G5 Group, was liquidated by a creditor in April last year after he failed to settle a R1.2m debt. And just a fortnight ago the high court in Johannesburg ordered Sodi, in his personal capacity, to pay Hollard Insurance a staggering R50m. On Thursday theCity of Tshwane submitted an applicationto the National Treasury to have Sodi’s companies, Blackhead Consulting and the G5 Group, barred from bidding for government contracts.
WATCH | Edwin Sodi’s empire crumbles amid R50m debt and liquidationhttps://t.co/44xeQBwnaspic.twitter.com/DT3J5tJ3Qf A blacklisting will have far-reaching consequences for the tender tycoon. He and his companies will not be able to bid for government contracts for a period of between five and 10 years. In the last 15 years, various government departments have paid Sodi — who countsDeputy President Paul Mashatileas one of his close friends — and his companies hundreds of millions of rands for controversial projects that he abandoned and left incomplete.
Among them are: Despite his woes, Sodi still owns a significant number of assets, in particular a substantial property portfolio. The Sunday Times has established that between 2015 and 2023, Sodi, through his MJS Family Trust, bought high-end properties worth at least R148m. These include: NJR Projects was liquidated by Case Hire North West, a plant-hire company that Sodi’s company had leased heavy-duty construction vehicles from.
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It is not immediately clear which project the equipment was for. Case Hire launched a civil claim against NJR Projects in the Pretoria high court in August 2020. “On/about 8 February 2018 and at Pretoria, the defendant, duly represented by NJ Ramahlaleroa in his capacity as director of the defendant, completed, accepted and submitted to the plaintiff an agreement in respect to lease from the plaintiff construction equipment and/or machinery,” said Case Hire’s particulars of claim.
The company said “the defendant on a continuous basis up to June 8 2020 leased from the plaintiff operators, machinery and/or equipment as ordered by the defendant on an order form from time to time,” said Case Hire, adding that NJR Projects stopped paying on June 8. Sodi did not oppose the matter, and the court granted Case Hire a default judgment in July 2021. NJR failed to settle the R1.2m claim, and in October 2024, Case Hire filed an application to have Sodi’s company liquidated. The liquidation application shows that NJR Projects paid Case Hire R200,000 in two tranches of R100,000, and promised to pay the remainder but failed to do so.
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