SANRAL is readvertising 86 road construction tenders, collectively valued at R7.2 billion, that were among those cancelled because of a legal challenge to its new preferential procurement policy (PPP) scoring system.

SANRAL CEO Reginald Demana said that the roads agency’s aim is to fast-track adjudication of the 86 tenders to get these projects back on track as speedily as possible.

“SANRAL has been busy over the past few weeks getting our procurement on track, after a delay caused by legal action taken by some construction companies late this year because they were opposed to a new procurement policy introduced in May 2023.

“The Board withdrew the policy in October 2023 to ensure that SANRAL could get back to awarding tenders and, in the process, hopefully get people back to fixing and improving our national roads.

“We embarked on a consultation process on an interim Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP), which ended towards the end of November. We were then able to put out tenders for 86 construction projects nationally. Those tenders close in the middle of December 2023, and we will be busy processing them over the next few weeks.

“We have made good on our promise to the road construction industry and the South African public that we would move as fast as possible to overcome the legal challenges to our PPP and get the industry back on track.”

This is after SANRAL conducted a series of countrywide public consultation sessions after the withdrawal of its PPP, with many verbal and written submissions made for SANRAL to consider in formulating its new interim PPP.