Rudolf Schoeman Jnr. was a large-than-life character: people have described him as charming, charismatic, a loud guy, but also the biggest bullshitter they’d ever met. Despite this, there is almost no trace of him online.

Rudolf Schoeman Jnr. built a R2-billion empire off the back of the country’s crumbling water infrastructure. By 2022, CMS Water Engineering was itself imploding as contracts were cancelled, and angry business partners and creditors came knocking at its door.

What happened to the money for Rooiwal? In the months before the project’s collapsed, Edwin Sodi’s business partner Rudolf Schoeman Jnr was spending millions on lamb and gold.

Critical repairs to the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant outside Hammanskraal ground to a halt in 2022, after CMS Water Engineering ran out of money.

In December 2021, a container-sized wooden box arrived in Durban. Inside: equipment that was urgently needed to repair the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant near Hammanskraal.

The problem? CMS Water Engineering couldn’t pay the R4.7-million in fees and taxes to get the box released.

Service delivery failure in a small town like Zeerust is almost taken for granted, given the wide disfunction of local government.

#DeadlyWater For years, CMS Water delivered 40 projects worth over R500-million, handed over without drama. But as Rudolf Schoeman chased bigger deals, the cracks began to show.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/66uvdst5xPw3jpwPDtaPl1?si=IluIn1ZdSSeSWXe4uvM6ug

#DeadlyWater When we visited the plant in Rustenburg, all we found was a lone blue shipping container marked “CMS Water Engineering.” Sources say the Rooiwal disaster was never a surprise.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/66uvdst5xPw3jpwPDtaPl1?si=7904d61607a14307

R1.2-million goes missing on the Rooiwal project, Edwin Sodi opened a case of theft and fraud against his business partner, and the City of Tshwane reluctantly coughs up R8.4-million to cover the shortfall.

Opinions remain divided on now-deceased CMS Water boss Rudolf Schoeman Jnr, who partnered with Edwin Sodi on the Rooiwal project. Some see him as a maverick, others “the biggest bullshitter” they’d ever met.

Do we know the real story behind the collapse of the R291-million Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant project? Was Edwin Sodi conned by his now-deceased business partner, as he has always claimed? AmaBhungane went digging.