By Johnathan Paoli
The DA in Tshwane has placed a single address, 148 Visvanger Street in Haakdoornboom outside Pretoria, at the centre of allegations of corruption, arguing it links a web of companies that have benefitted from municipal tenders and may expose deeper political connections involving deputy mayor Eugene Modise.
Addressing a media briefing on the party’s planned submissions to the Madlanga Commission on Tuesday, finance spokesperson Jacqui Uys said the DA had uncovered a pattern of irregular procurement, questionable payments and overlapping business interests linked to politically connected individuals within the metro.
“When I searched the name El Shaddai on CIPC records, I discovered that it shares a common registered address with several of the other companies that from time to time have done business with Tshwane. That common address is 148 Visvanger Street, Haakdoornboom,” she said.
Uys said her own investigation into the address revealed a network of companies operating in tandem.
“At 148 Visvanger, I observed a collection of water tankers and waste removal trucks, which tended to confirm that the address was being used by multiple companies performing services related to those of the SS01-2324 tender,” she said.
She further alleged that several of these companies shared directors and had benefited from the same municipal contracts.
“On a company search, I found that most of these companies had indeed benefited from SS01 2023/2024 with one of four individuals as current or past directors, namely Percy Lamola, Abednego Lamola, Alvin Naicker, and Donovan Naicker,” she said.
Uys also raised concerns about the role of ANC-linked figures in influencing payments.
“One of these companies was called Aqua Transport. The importance of Aqua Transport is that another ANC politician in Tshwane, George Matjila, had approached me on at least two occasions enquiring about invoices by Tshwane to this company. I discovered that many of them were backdated to as far as 2018 and were not backed by purchase orders. In other words, I suspected that what Matjila wanted was for Tshwane to pay invoices that had not, in fact, been properly requisitioned by the city. This creates risks of fraud,” she said.
She added that subsequent oversight processes appeared to confirm these concerns.
Uys said a report served before the Section 79 Oversight Committee on Finance indicated that the companies that Matjila enquired about, including Aqua Transport, had debit balances on their supplier accounts of R6.8 million, indicating that payments were eventually made by the city to these companies without invoices being processed.
Turning back to El Shaddai, Uys alleged links between its directors and Modise.
“I discovered that one of the founding directors of El Shaddai, a person called M.M. Masilela, had been a founding director with a top-ranking ANC politician called Eugene Modise in two companies,” she said.
Uys confirmed that the DA had escalated the matter to multiple institutions.
“We have approached the Public Protector on both the security tender, as well as invoices paid on water tankers for investigations. We have called for SIU investigations, and we have opened up a case at SAPS for fraud and corruption against Eugene Modise,” she said.
Former Tshwane mayor and DA mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink reinforced the party’s claims, arguing that the alleged irregularities formed part of a broader pattern of financial abuse within the metro.
“It emerged that there had been a massive overspending in the 2025 financial year on water tankering companies, increasing from R140 million in 2024 to R777 million in 2025, most of that unauthorised and unbudgeted for,” Brink said.
Brink said the DA believed the issues went beyond isolated incidents.
“We have long suspected that the spending patterns around water tankers and security companies are not isolated issues, but a coordinated effort to extract money from the city of Tshwane for the benefit of individuals connected to the ANC,” he said.
He added that testimony before the Madlanga Commission had strengthened the party’s case, saying that the recent testimony of SAPS Gauteng Organised Crime Sergeant Fannie Nkosi had confirmed a lot of the party’s suspicions.
Brink questioned whether Modise had complied with legal requirements regarding business interests, namely that he had declared and divested his business interests.
“You can’t serve as an MMC for finance while your own business is benefiting from your policy decisions. It’s as clear as daylight what you should do,” Brink said.
This follows earlier demands for a forensic probe into the metro’s security tender, particularly contracts linked to Triotic Protection Services, a company previously associated with Modise.
The DA insists that the growing body of evidence, now partly echoed in testimony before the Madlanga Commission, warrants urgent political consequences as well as deeper forensic scrutiny into procurement practices in Tshwane.
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