Limpopo company denied leave to appeal court ruling on damning SIU report

• A Limpopo company was denied leave to appeal a court ruling.
• The SIU found the company entered into a multimillion-rand contract that was invalid and unlawful.
• The company said it was considering its options, including approaching the Supreme Court of Appeal or Constitutional Court.

A Limpopo company, which was found to have overstated claims by R76 million, was on Monday denied leave to appeal a judgment which set aside a damning Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report.

The Polokwane High Court found that an appeal by the company, Mphaphuli Consulting (Pty) Ltd, had no prospects for success.

A week ago, Judge Gerrit Muller dismissed, with costs, the company's application to set aside the SIU report. 

The SIU found that the multimillion-rand contract entered into between the company and the Fetakgomo Tubatse municipality was invalid and unlawful. 

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The SIU recommended that the company pay back the R76 million it had overstated in its claims from the municipality.

The company was contracted to electrify thousands of households under the municipality's jurisdiction. 

In his judgment against the setting aside of the SIU report a week ago, Judge Muller said: "The SIU must perform a fact-finding exercise and is authorised to perform all the functions and powers assigned to it by the SIU Act, including taking the necessary steps to recover any losses suffered by the municipality by instituting proceedings in a Special Tribunal or a court of law for a determination."

The company's director, Lufuno Mphaphuli, told News24 they were considering a "way forward and possibly approaching the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) or Constitutional Court.

Meanwhile, the company has written to head of the SIU, Andy Mothibi, to expedite a court hearing to recover the R76 million.

In the letter, the company said it had been subjected to an adverse narrative by the SIU of overcharging for professional engineering services rendered to the municipality. 

"It has thus not been possible for Mphaphuli Consulting to continue operating its core business under these circumstances and was aggravated by the SIU decision to pre-judge this matter, and gave the municipality the go-ahead in replacing our company in the executing of the outstanding works in our contract whilst the matter is still to be heard by the Polokwane High Court," the company wrote.