NATIONAL NEWS - The City of Cape Town has been stopped from adjudicating and awarding two tenders because of objections by a construction group to a new tender scoring system for the award of preferential procurement points it introduced in September 2023.
In a judgment handed down in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, Judge Judith Cloete interdicted and restrained the city from proceeding with the adjudication and award of two tenders.
The interdict was granted pending the determination of Part B of the application brought by H&I Civil Building (Pty) Ltd and H&I Construction (Pty) Ltd in which it seeks to review the decision taken by the city:
- In September 2023 to implement the new scoring system for tenders; and
- In December 2023 dismissing H&I Civil Building and H&I Construction’s internal appeals against the decision to implement the new scoring system.
The city opposed the application.
Seven other respondents were cited, including JSE-listed Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon Limited, CVS Construction (Pty) Ltd, Asla Construction (Pty) Ltd, Baseline Civil Contractors (Pty) Ltd, Martin & East (Pty) Ltd, Power Construction (Pty) Ltd and Ruwacon (Pty) Ltd but did not participate in the hearing.
The tenders impacted by the interdict were for:
- The redecoration, alteration, additions to and construction of new buildings and structures for maintenance, safety, and security and other city facilities; and
- The construction of the Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) System Metro South-East corridor (Phase 2A) stations infrastructure.
The value of each of these tenders exceeds R50 million.
Sanral interdict
H&I Construction, in September last year, also obtained an interdict in the High Court in Gqeberha that stopped the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) from proceeding with the adjudication and award of two specific tenders in accordance with its controversial amended tender scoring system.
Sanral subsequently withdrew its new preferential procurement policy (PPP), including its new controversial tender scoring system, to avoid lengthy court battles associated with implementing the new policy.
This resulted in the cancellation of the affected tenders by Sanral and engagement with stakeholders to agree on a new interim PPP before expediting the re-advertisement, adjudication, and award of the cancelled tenders using the interim PPP.
Read more on Caxton publication, The Citizen
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