City’s court appeal bid in facilities case dismissed

THE City’s application for leave to appeal against the High Court’s September judgment in a procurement of facilities management case has been dismissed.

Hearing the application, Judge Ashley Binns-Ward said he was not persuaded that there was a reasonable prospect of success in an appellate court. The City and the successful tenderers applied separately for leave to appeal, but the judge consolidated the applications and heard them together.

In September, the Western Cape High Court found that the tender process by the City of Cape Town for the procurement of facilities management at various ad hoc sites and council facilities was “non-compliant and invalid”.

The court also gave the City six months to remedy the situation to enable it to make alternative arrangements for the lawful procurement of the services.

Ruling in the application for leave to appeal, Judge Binns-Ward said: “The principal judgment speaks for itself, and therefore it would be inappropriate in this judgment to unduly rehash it.

“Suffice it to say that the principal issues to be determined were whether the advertisement of the tender provided sufficient information to potentially interested parties concerning the services that the City wished to procure, so as to comply with the City’s supply chain management policy.”

According to the September ruling, the City stood to incur an expenditure of about R700 million over a threeyear period in connection with the tender for the provision of facility and cash management services in respect of selected public transport facilities, including MyCiTi and public transport interchanges.

All4Security Services, the first applicants in the matter, alleged that about 28% of that expenditure would be in respect of the provision of security services. They had taken the matter to court seeking a fresh procurement process within a specified period.