EC builders demand school tenders

Threaten to block awarding of deals to outsiders

DISGRUNTLED Eastern Cape builders have vowed to disrupt government school contracts awarded to outsiders.

Building consultants and contractors in the province want school infrastructure projects awarded to local companies.

Affiliates of the South African Black Technical and Allied Careers Organisation (Sabtaco), the Eastern Cape Black Contractors Association (ECBCA) and the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (Asaqs) have accused the Department of Basic Education (DBE) of setting tender requirements that deliberately exclude black-owned companies from the province when it comes to construction of schools.

At the centre of their grievances is a major contract to build 29 medium to large schools in the Eastern Cape worth R1.5-billion to R2.3-billion.

The construction of the schools, valued at R50-million to R150million each, forms part of the department’s Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (Asidi), an intervention headed by DBE Minister Angie Motshekga, to upgrade and implement basic norms and standards in school infrastructure.

One of the criteria to qualify for the tender is for bidders to have a minimum completed projected fee value of R50-million.

ECBCA chairman Sakhele Skenjana said this excluded 95% of the companies in the Eastern Cape.

“The Eastern Cape is being undermined by DBE. We do not have mines and factories; construction is our mines. We can no longer sit back and fold our arms while money is being shipped out of the province.

“We are tired and we are angry and if the DBE continues like this there will be dire consequences. People on the ground will make sure that no company from outside the province lifts a brick to build a school,” said Skenjana.

Sabtaco’s national deputy president, Monwabisi Rwexu, who also chairs Asaqs in the province, said DBE’s criteria were a threat to the future of professional contractors in the province in more ways than one, because the exclusion also prevented them from offering students at local universities experiential training.

“For students in the building environment to become qualified quantity surveyors, they need to undergo experiential training. We cannot hire them because the contracts are awarded to companies from other provinces who have no intention to hire students from Walter Sisulu and Fort Hare universities,” he said.

He said at a meeting with Motshekga last month in Bhisho meant to iron out their grievances, they were barred from even interacting with the minister.

“The minister abruptly left the venue without a formal conclusion of the meeting, which we found totally undermining,” said Rwexu.

According to the DBE, the construction of the schools was expected to start within the current financial year, but the tender process has already been marred by a number of delays.

Earlier this year, 17 architecture, design and quantity surveying firms, which claim they were not asked to bid, challenged the award of the contract in the Grahamstown High Court.

This was after DBE announced late last year that TCN Architects – which has offices in both Mthatha and East London – had won the contract.

The firms wanted the Grahamstown High Court to set aside the award to TCN on the basis that the process followed was uncompetitive, unfair, unlawful and unconstitutional.

On June 8 the court ordered Motshekga, who was cited as first respondent, to review and set aside the decision and begin a new procurement process.

DBE spokesmen Elijah Mhlanga and Terence Khala failed to respond to questions e-mailed to them last week on Wednesday.