South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) CEO Reginald Demana says the company uses an open tender system which is not restricted to South Africans only.
This comes after the EB Cloete Interchange and Mtentu Bridge projects were granted to Chinese companies despite the bidders being disqualified early in the bidding process.
Demana says the companies who were awarded the tenders are joint venture companies with high participation of black South Africans.
He says the companies are duty-bound to employ local people, semi-skilled and unskilled people.
“If the rules say you must only restrict tenders to South African companies, we will do that. In this case, we issue tenders to anybody registered in the CSD database, National Treasury who complies with local legislation, they are tax compliant, they are BEE compliant, they participate in the tenders. We don’t design those rules, we just play by the rules that are there.”
Below is the full interview
