Open government tenders in South Africa

How public tendering works in South Africa

Public-sector procurement is governed by section 217 of the Constitution, which requires an open, fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective system, together with the Public Finance Management Act and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act. In practice that means almost every tender above a threshold must be publicly advertised.

The National Treasury eTenders portal is the central publication point. Departments, municipalities and public entities are required to advertise there, which makes it the most complete free source of opportunities. Institutions also publish on their own websites, and some provincial treasuries run their own bulletins.

None of this requires a paid subscription. If a service charges you for access to publicly advertised tender information, you are paying for convenience at best and for a scrape of the same free portal at worst.

The five things that disqualify most bids

A missing or expired tax compliance status. SARS issues a Tax Compliance Status PIN that bidders declare in the Central Supplier Database. If it has lapsed, the bid is disqualified regardless of price or quality.

No valid B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit. An Exempted Micro-Enterprise qualifies for a B-BBEE status level using a sworn affidavit signed before a Commissioner of Oaths, valid for twelve months. Letting it lapse is the most common avoidable disqualification.

Missing a compulsory briefing. Where the advertisement marks a briefing session as compulsory, a bid from a bidder who did not attend and sign the register is invalid.

Incomplete or unsigned returnable documents. Every returnable schedule must be completed and signed, and where required, commissioned. An unsigned pricing schedule invalidates the bid.

Late submission. Late bids are not accepted, and the deadline is often a specified time of day rather than end of day. Allow for load shedding, queuing and a delivery point that is not where you expect.