High Court rules SANRAL road maintenance panel unlawful; agency abandons model

The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) has abandoned its contractor panel procurement model after the Gauteng High Court declared its routine road maintenance tender process unconstitutional and unlawful. The court set aside SANRAL’s decision to award Routine Road Maintenance contracts to a panel of 20 companies following separate applications by BCB Solutions and Botle Ba Afrika Roads.

Why the court intervened

The judgment found shortcomings in SANRAL’s handling of the tender process, including failures to provide documents within an ordered timeframe and providing material that applicants described as “disorganised, incomplete, partially inaccessible, and materially deficient.”

The judge noted that a significant number of documents were missing and that portions of some documents had been redacted without explanation, stating there was no need for such redactions because the bid documents did not include confidential price information.

Governance failures identified

The court also criticised the committee responsible for awarding the tender for not keeping full minutes of meetings that reflected deliberations before voting on resolutions, including decisions to appoint or disqualify bidders. Instead, the committee recorded only the bare resolutions taken.

The ruling quoted the judge saying:

“One can only hope – which hope I still arrived at grudgingly – that this type of incidents were [sic] few and isolated.”

SANRAL response and next steps

SANRAL said it would engage with affected bidders on the implications of the ruling and planned a media briefing to address allegations of corruption, procurement failures, lawsuits and internal lapses affecting the agency.

According to SAnews, SANRAL chief executive Reginald Demana announced that the agency would abandon the contractor panel model for routine road maintenance and engineering consultancy services and return to the traditional open tender system. Demana said no further work could be allocated under the panel contracts following the court ruling, and that new tenders would be advertised in phases to ensure road maintenance continued uninterrupted.

Litigation history and lessons

The judgment follows months of litigation over SANRAL’s procurement. In June, WIB Intellitech sought an urgent interdict to halt the implementation of an information technology tender awarded by SANRAL; the High Court dismissed that application on procedural grounds. That case centred on allegations about a contract valued at R438.3 million being awarded despite a competing bid of about R101.2 million, an allegation SANRAL disputed.

Demana told SAnews that SANRAL had “learned important lessons” from the litigation and had underestimated the complexity of implementing the panel procurement model. He said the return to open tenders would improve transparency while ensuring the country’s national road network continued to receive routine maintenance.

Outstanding details

The value of the routine road maintenance tender set aside by the court was not stated in the ruling.