SANRAL BOARD TO ADDRESS THE MEDIA

For immediate release

Pretoria 19 May 2022 – Over the past two days several reports have appeared in the media concerning the cancellation of SANRAL tenders amounting to R17.473 billion. It should immediately be obvious to any right thinking individual that this decision would not have been taken for flimsy reasons.

Contained in these media reports were a number of comments, some of which demonstrated ignorance about how decisions on procurement at SANRAL are made. Some of these comments suggest there are bidders who want to intimidate SANRAL to award them tenders even where that should not be the case.

“Some of these comments came from captains of industry in the construction sector who, it would seem, expect the SANRAL Board to disregard the violation of Board resolutions and the flouting of procurement policies and procedures,” said SANRAL Board Chairperson Mr Themba Mhambi.

The SANRAL Board dismisses these comments as unfactual and at best sensational. The Board will accordingly hold a media briefing on Monday to set the record straight with regard to, inter alia, the following:

• Non-compliance with and violation of its resolution which led to a material irregularity in the tendering process.

• The involvement of external design consultants in the evaluation of tenders and therefore arrogating SANRAL’s power to determine qualifying bidders to external private individuals. This constitutes a material conflict of interest.

• Reduction and cancellation of sub-contracting requirements without Board approval resulting in the exclusion of black economic empowerment companies at sub-contracting level and losing them more than R2 billion.

• Patterns in the allocation of contracts in the past three years to show SANRAL’s support for the industry but also illustrating monopolies which are at the heart of the misinformation about the cancellation of these tenders.

• Recommendation of entities that should have been disqualified.

• Other lapses in the tendering processes.

The SANRAL Board will address the press briefing on Monday 23 May 2022 to expose the deliberate misinformation and distortion of facts that have characterized this story. Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula will join the press conference.

“It is important that we take the country and our stakeholders into confidence about these matters and how our actions are in the best interest of SANRAL and the public,” said Mhambi.

Media must look out for an advisory with the details of the press briefing. Media will be advised as to the details of the press briefing.