CAPE TOWN WOES IN TENDER FIGHT GROW

Awarded firm insists it deserves contract

THE City of Cape Town may have bungled its legal battle to have an R11-million tender cancelled by filing its Constitutional Court papers two weeks late without explaining its failure to meet the deadline.

The metro is appealing a December Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgment overturning an earlier Western Cape High Court decision setting aside the awarding of the tender to engineering firm Aurecon SA in 2012.

Aurecon was awarded the tender to provide professional services for the decommissioning and demolishing of the Athlone Power Station. The company has told the Constitutional Court the City of Cape Town had 15 days to file its application for leave to appeal the SCA’s December 9 judgment.

According to Aurecon, the 15-day period ended on January 4, but the City only filed its application on January 18. Aurecon maintains that the City of Cape Town did not apply for condonation of its application timeously and wants the City’s appeal to be dismissed.

According to the company, there is no evidence that the City of Cape Town’s appeal was properly authorised.

“In the applicant’s (City of Cape Town’s) founding affidavit it is alleged that the applicant has resolved to bring same, but no proof of such a resolution is attached,” the company said.

The City denied that its application was not properly authorised, saying they were given authority by city manager Achmat Ebrahim and deputy mayor Ian Nielsen.

The City’s fight to have the tender set aside has previously been dismissed by the SCA.

Aurecon SA insists it did nothing wrong and that an investigation commissioned by the City found that its officials flouted procurement policies when the tender was awarded.

The municipality’s probe also found no wrongdoing on Aurecon SA’s part, but insisted the tender was awarded unlawfully. The ConCourt will hear the matter in November.