Durban - Despite the ongoing concern of many of Durban’s councillors, businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane’s company continues to bag housing tenders worth millions from eThekwini Municipality.
The latest contract given to her Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport is for a whopping R405 million.
According to the monthly report on public tender awards made by the city in July, Zikhulise is required to construct 2 350 low-cost houses and retaining walls for the Umlazi Infill project.
The contract was awarded in terms of regulation 24 of section 5 of the Supply Chain Management Regulations. This is for contracts of more than R10m.
This means that the accounting officer may negotiate the final terms of a contract with a bidder, identified through a competitive process, as preferred.
The contract was discussed by the municipal public accounts committee last week.
IFP councillor Prem Iyir said he was “very suspicious” that the normal tender process had not been followed. “We think that the company was just given the contract without it being advertised,” he said.
Iyir said the party was concerned that regulation 24 was going to become the “new trend” in the awarding of contracts. Suddenly a number of such contracts were appearing.
Previously many tenders were issued using section 36 of Supply Chain Management Regulations. This is an emergency regulation which can be used to circumvent ordinary tender processes.
“Yes, we agree that the use of section 36 is going down, but I think that it is now coming up in a new form. If we continue like this we will not get a clean audit,” he said.
However, the head of supply chain management, Andre Petersen, said that the tender for this contract had been advertised and the correct processes had been followed.
ANC councillor Nompumelelo Chamane said the report on the contract was “premature” and that they needed the full details.
Committee chairman Sipho Kaunda said the report needed to be clean. “Section 36 is not for poor planning,” he said.
Councillor Pearl Luthuli, also from the ANC, said officials needed to be accountable.
DA councillor Andre Mitchell said the party needed the full details of the contract.
In March Zikhulise was awarded a R255.6m contract using section 36.
In June the company was awarded a R28.5 million contract using section 36 to construct 526 houses and retaining walls for the same project.
The DA has asked for a special investigation into why municipalities in the province use Section 36.
The party made the request to the provincial office of the auditor-general more than two months ago.