Nthimotse Mokhesi is HOD of the Free State Housing Department that gave Blackhead Consulting a R255 million asbestos contract.
A YouTube screengrab of Edwin Sodi, a director of Blackhead Consulting, testifying before the state capture commission in Johannesburg on 29 September 2020.
JOHANNESBURG – Blackhead Consulting director, Edwin Sodi, on Tuesday told the state capture commission that he did not know that his partner Nthimotse Mokhesi could not raise the full bond for a house that they both said they bought in Bloemfontein.
Mokhesi is HOD of the Free State Housing Department that gave Blackhead a R255 million asbestos contract.
And he said Sodi helped him to buy the house to live in because Absa would not lend him the money because of a South African Revenue Service (Sars) judgment.
Sodi did not appear anywhere in the ownership documents of the property, but he maintained it was an investment agreement.
He said he also did not know that Mokhesi needed to live in the house, but they later agreed that he could and rather pay his rental money towards the bond.
“Do you know that he couldn’t raise the full purchase price of the property by way of bond?” asked the commission’s evidence leader, Advocate Paul Pretorius.
Sodi said in response: “See, that’s a direct question which I appreciate chair. Thank you for the direct question. I didn’t know that he couldn’t raise a bond of a particular amount. That information certainly wasn’t provided to me.”