Municipality hands over documents after three-year battle.
contacted some of the bidders to ask whether they had been informed that they had submitted incomplete documentation. Most of them were experienced developers and had previously submitted tenders.
He had decided not to litigate, Marageni said last week during a telephone interview, but said he was “still very upset” about what had happened. The practice of the Makhado municipality of “losing” documents, leading to the disqualification of bidders, is nothing new, he said. He now keeps duplicates of all documentation submitted and even numbers the pages so that it is more difficult for officials to remove pages.
The immediate disqualification of seven of the bidders may not be in line with the municipality’s Supply Chain Management Policy . Section 24 of the policy allows the municipality to enter into a discussion with a preferred bidder. In this case, it might have been the highest bidder and the municipality could have requested that the missing document be supplied. This is allowed, as long as the bidder does not get an unfair advantage over other bidders.
Yet in the 2018/19 financial year Makhado received a qualified opinion from the Auditor-General. One of the matters highlighted was that proper procurement processes were not always followed. The fact that the municipality did not adhere to its SCMP, was raised again in the 2019/20 A-G report. The buyer of Erf 3456, Banyana Enterprise, has its registered address as Van der Merwe Street, Nelspruit. The only director at the time was Esther Nunu Mhlongo. She is a politically well-connected businesswoman, holding numerous directorships, especially in farming-related enterprises. Banyana Enterprise was registered on 2 March 2018, four months before the Makhado Council decided to dispose of the public park.
Nemaname and Raliphada were asked whether the local address supplied by Banyana Enterprise had been verified. They did not respond to the question.
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