The long-running battle over the Ncojane Water Supply Works took a sharp turn this week as Tawana JV’s legal team accused senior government officials of orchestrating a sham suspension of the procurement process to sidestep binding court orders.
On Monday, May 11, 2026, the law firm Jeremiah Tladi & Co responded to the Attorney General with a blistering claim that the Ministry of Water and Human Settlement is in criminal contempt of both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
Tensions reached a peak on May 7 following a March ruling by a Court of Appeal panel, Judge President Tebogo Tau, Isaac Lesetedi, and South African Judge Edwin Cameron, that dismissed an appeal by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and Zhong Gan Engineering (CCECC/ZGEC). The ruling effectively upheld the contract award to Tawana JV, a joint venture wholly owned by citizens.
At the center of the dispute is a procurement contract valued at over P1.5 billion. Lawyers for Tawana JV described the government’s latest legal justification for suspending the contract as “illogical” and “self-defeating.”
According to the legal correspondence, directors of Tawana JV spent hours waiting in the Ministry’s lobby on May 7 for a scheduled meeting to discuss the contract’s placement. Instead of meeting them in person, the Ministry’s Accounting Officer, Nchidzi Mmolawa, reportedly hand-delivered a suspension letter to the contractors’ private offices. Tawana JV’s lawyers called the move “the antithesis of the rule of law,” suggesting officials were coordinating an administrative response behind closed doors while the contractors waited.
The government asserts the suspension followed directives from the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA). But Tawana JV contends those directives did not exist at the time the suspension was announced.
“Our client’s position is that the DCEC instruction and the PPRA authority did not exist at all on 7 May 2026,” the lawyers said.
They further alleged that various state institutions have since scrambled to create these documents retroactively to support their narrative.
Tawana JV is now escalating the matter from civil to criminal contempt, demanding that the Attorney General produce the alleged DCEC and PPRA documents. The firm has also signaled its intent to seek the joinder of the Director General of the DCEC, the Chief Executive Officer of the PPRA, and the Acting Attorney General in both their personal and official capacities.
The contractor is pursuing personal committal imprisonment for those officials found responsible, along with personal cost orders.
The law firm also highlighted public remarks by President Duma Boko, who has warned the government against relying on “tabulated legalism” to deny substantive justice to citizens.