Construction World January 2024

ROADS & BRIDGES

The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) resumed procurement for road construction projects early in December as 86 tenders were expected to be advertised. SANRAL’s Chief Executive Officer, Reginald Demana, has announced that the national roads agency is getting back to business after tenders worth billions of rands were stalled due to a legal impasse between SANRAL and some construction companies. SANRAL KICKSTARTS MULTI-BILLION RAND ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

High priority tenders Demana said as part of the retender process, SANRAL has reprioritised some of the less complex previously advertised tenders related to consulting engineer appointments and contractor appointments for asset preservation projects. These were subjected to a shortened retender period to enable their closing by 14 December 2023, thus enabling SANRAL to commence with tender evaluations during the December period so as to get projects back on track as fast as possible. “We are making 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 Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP) and get the industry back on track,” said Demana. WhySANRALishere The readvertisement of tenders, scheduled to start from today, is the first step toward getting the road construction industry back to normal after all SANRAL tenders were cancelled following the SANRAL Board’s withdrawal of the Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP) which it had adopted in May 2023. The SANRAL Board announced on 24 October 2023 that it

had withdrawn the PPP after several construction companies launched legal challenges against the policy. The withdrawal of the policy was informed by SANRAL prioritising business continuity as it was clear then that with the mounting legal challenges, SANRAL could not put out any work to tender without attracting same. In the interest of avoiding protracted legal battles – which could easily derail SANRAL from fulfilling its core mandate of building and maintaining national roads – and ensuring that the construction industry continues to work, SANRAL Board’s decided to withdraw the policy while at the same time committing the roads agency to move speedily to consult interested and affected parties on a proposed interim PPP. It also needs to be said that following the Constitutional Court ruling of 16 February 2022, the determination of a procurement policy was firmly placed within the domain of the individual organs of state – something which in the first place gave rise to SANRAL coming up with the procurement policy that became the subject of court challenges. Commitment to transformation SANRAL has been at pains to emphasize that the withdrawal of the policy was no sign of capitulation. It was a pragmatic decision taken to ensure that the procurement of goods and services and service delivery are not interrupted. Themba Mhambi, SANRAL’s Board Chairperson, said: “Our democracy is underpinned by transformation. If there

22 CONSTRUCTION WORLD JANUARY 2024