Sibanye hauled to court over tender
Miner says contract withdrawn after irregularities detected
● A businessman is taking on PGM giant Sibanye-Stillwater over a lucrative tender to transport cobalt and nickel from Marikana to Richards Bay.
The company, Parabats Security Pty (Ltd), which received a letter of intent from the miner indicating its intention to award it the tender, claims the contract is worth at least R17.5bn.
However, Sibanye-Stillwater, which confirmed to Business Times that it issued the letter of intent, disputed the contract amount as claimed by Parabats, saying it was worth R16m a year.
The company said it withdrew the letter because it found Parabats hadn’t met all its requirements after a screening process.
Sibanye said it had since asked auditing firm PwC to conduct a forensic investigation into the tender process after receiving an anonymous tip-off that some of its employees may have been involved in wrongdoing.
Mzamo Mini, a director of Parabats, has approached the Pretoria high court to challenge the decision to withdraw the letter and award the contract to another company.
In the court papers filed in April last year, Parabats — which provides construction, bulk goods transportation, and security services, and has done work in both the public and private sectors — contends that Sibanye acted “unreasonably and irrationally” when it cancelled the letter of intent granted to it on November 24 2022, for the transportation of cobalt and nickel from the Marikana Base Metals Refinery to Richards Bay.
The company said it applied for the tender advertised in May 2022 on Coupa —a portal used by several mining houses to manage their procurement database — and was invited by Sibanye to a virtual presentation in September 2022 to outline its implementation strategy, plan, timeframes and indicate its state of readiness.
It was shortlisted and asked to make another presentation, where it outlined how it would execute the work.
Mini said Parabats committed to sourcing 30 trucks for transportation of the cobalt and nickel; providing CCTV surveillance in all the trucks; making sure each truck had a refuelling card; and putting security patrols in place to accompany the trucks to Durban.
It also committed to involving the community of Marikana in its work by training young local people to provide truck washing services, uniforms to Parabats employees, and meals to drivers.
It also vowed to train women truck drivers and employ them once the training was complete.
In the letter received from Sibanye, the miner cites its intention to enter into a contract with Parabats, but on condition that it will not be legally enforceable until “a full and formal written agreement has been concluded and signed by both parties”.
“This letter is subject to the contract being successfully approved in accordance with the Sibanye-Stillwater Approval