SERIES: DEADLY WATER
Do we know the real story behind the collapse of the R291-million Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant project? Was the infamous tenderpreneur Edwin Sodi conned by his now-deceased business partner, as he has always claimed? Opinions remain divided on CMS Water boss Rudolf Schoeman Jnr – some see him as a maverick, others “the biggest bullshitter” they’d ever met. AmaBhungane went digging and found a trail of destruction across four provinces and a billion rand’s worth of critical infrastructure projects incomplete. Deadly Water is amaBhungane’s first podcast, told by the journalists who did the digging.
DEADLY WATER: The life and death of a tenderpreneur (Part 1)
21 October, 2025
In the early hours of 6 March 2023, Rudolf Schoeman Jnr was found dead in his Bryanston home.
DEADLY WATER Part 2: A trail of destruction across North West
28 October, 2025
Every good scandal needs an origin story – and CMS Water Engineering is no different.
DEADLY WATER (Part 2 continued): Another Rooiwal debacle in Rustenburg
31 October, 2025
In 2018, CMS Water Engineering was awarded an R85-million tender to upgrade the Bospoort water treatment plant, on the outskirts of Rustenburg.
DEADLY WATER (Part 3): The dominoes fall
4 November, 2025
Joburg Rudolf Schoeman Jnr took his father, Dolf’s, modest engineering business and – through bravado, ambition and alleged bribery – turned it into a major beneficiary of government tenders in the water industry.
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