Two of South Africa’s largest road and bridge construction projects were ultimately granted to Chinese companies despite the bidders being disqualified early in the bidding process, tender documents show.
Once completed by the end of 2027, the Mtentu Bridge will be 1,132m long and form part of Sanral’s N2 Wild Coast Road programme, which involves a 410km stretch from East London to the Mtamvuna River on the border between the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. These requirements are normally assessed early in the process of adjudicating a tender, so it’s worrying that neither of the applicants was considered eligible.
“In the end, there was nothing in the process that was material enough to say the process was fatally flawed and should be cancelled. And those contract awards went ahead,” said Demana during a briefing to journalists. In these cases, the project was readvertised and subsequently granted to the Base Major-China State joint venture. However, according to insiders, the awards were made subject to the provision of documentation.The Development Bank of Southern Africa, which had been roped in to oversee Sanral’s tender bidding processes, has been approached for comment but has yet to respond.
“Therefore, they tend to bid incorrectly for projects. The costs can come up much higher than a firm that is experienced. Price is often a key determinant in the tenders.” Chinese firms often have little to no empowerment credentials. To win contracts from Sanral, they often have to partner with local companies, piggybacking on their empowerment credentials.
Chris Campbell, the CEO of Consulting Engineers South Africa, an industry body, questioned the fairness of the Sanral tender process that gave a price advantage to the Chinese firms. Sanral has also ruffled feathers with changes to its Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment and a new preferential procurement policy it applies when adjudicating tenders, which major construction firms believe will make it difficult for them to win contracts from the agency.
In the past, Sanral used a bidder’s BBBEE rating to allocate a maximum of 10 or 20 points out of 100 for compliance with the agency’s preferential procurement requirements, mainly its empowerment criteria.In May, Sanral abruptly changed the weighting of the 10 and 20 points for preferential procurement to provide maximum benefit for 100% black-owned firms.
“We will continue to support big companies in the construction space, but we will not do that at the expense of the small companies,” he said.
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