Security Contractor Contracts Spark Tshwane Leadership Challenge; DA Seeks Court Intervent

Triotic Protection Services, a security company with millions of rands in City of Tshwane contracts, sits at the centre of a High Court application filed by the Democratic Alliance against the City’s governing coalition.

The DA has approached the Gauteng High Court to overturn a Council decision that allowed Deputy Executive Mayor Eugene Modise to keep his position after a forensic investigation, commissioned by Tshwane itself, found he had failed to declare his financial stake in Triotic. The Council’s ruling coalition of the ANC, ActionSA and the EFF voted to impose a financial penalty rather than remove him from office.

The financial conflict is direct. Modise serves as MMC for Finance, giving him oversight of the budget allocations that, according to the DA, benefited his undisclosed business interests. His tenure in that role has coincided with substantial increases in municipal spending on security watchman services. A politician controlling the municipal purse while holding an undeclared stake in a company drawing contracts from that same purse is precisely the structural conflict the Councillors’ Code of Conduct exists to prevent.

The DA’s application argues the Council’s decision is both unlawful and irrational. Allowing the code of conduct to function as optional guidance rather than enforceable law, the party contends, undermines accountability mechanisms across local government. The application asks the High Court to set aside the Council’s decision and remit the matter for reconsideration under what the DA describes as the correct legal framework, which would expose Modise to consequences proportionate to the forensic findings against him.

By contrast, the coalition’s protective vote signals a different set of priorities. The ANC, ActionSA and the EFF chose to absorb the political cost of shielding Modise rather than enforce the code. The DA singles out ActionSA, a junior coalition partner, for particular criticism, arguing it endorsed what the party characterises as ANC lawlessness.

The DA has positioned itself as the counterweight, arguing it alone is pressing for the principle that no politician operates above the law. The party said it would provide updates as proceedings advance.

What changed with the High Court filing is the arena. The dispute moves from municipal politics, where coalition arithmetic determines outcomes, into the judicial system, where lawfulness and rationality are the operative tests. Courts cannot be managed through bloc voting.

The case raises a question that extends well beyond Tshwane: when the officials responsible for enforcing conduct codes are the same officials who benefit from non-enforcement, what mechanism actually compels compliance? The answer, at least in this instance, may depend on how the Gauteng High Court reads the binding force of a code the Council chose to treat as discretionary.