Fear lessl y the tr uth 4 Desember 2015
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Yet another legal battle lost
GTM must pay up
The Greater Tzaneen Municipality has lost yet another legal battle. This time around the High Court in Pretoria ruled on Monday in urgent interdict applications that the tender process for the upgrading of two roads in the district was “unlawful and unconstitutionally invalid”. To add insult to injury, the GTM, Selby Construction CC, Matlala Nyapele Investment and Properties CC and Readira Refuge Services CC, the respondents in the matters, have to pay the costs — including costs of two counsel — of the urgent applications by Quality Plant Hire CC and Expectra 388 CC, the applicants. Five advocates, two of whom are senior (SC) councel, have to be paid! Furthermore there are legal costs of the attorneys who acted for the parties (for the GTM it was Mahowa Inc of Tzaneen). The costs are likely to run into hundreds of thousands of rands. The urgent applications were aimed at restraining the GTM and Selby from implementing the project to upgrade a grav-
el road between Mafarana and Burgersdorp to tar, as well as restraining the GTM, Matlala Nyapelle and Readira Refuge from implementing the project to upgrade a gravel road between Moruji and Matswi/Kheshokwe to tar. Selby’s tender for the Mafarana road amounted to R53 956 980,00, whilst the joint venture between Quality and Expectra submitted a tender for R46 904 298,83 — a difference of R7 052 681,17! Judge M W Msimeki made a number of harsh comments in his verdict, especially regarding the GTM’s arguments for disqualifying the joint venture’s tender arguing that Mr Etienne Tolmay was not qualified to be the Site Agent. The GTM also argued that the joint venture did not have the necessary plant and equipment to build the roads. In this respect the Judge referred to the joint venture’s track record of doing work for the GTM in the past to the value of more than R356 million. He also criticised the GTM’s procurement policy, as well as
its Supply Chain Management Policy. The GTM’s ability to evaluate a tender on functionality, and possible failure in applying criteria even-handedly also featured prominently in the judge’s ruling. • We obtained a copy of the judgement, but it could only be transmitted to our offices late on Wednesday. We will study it properly and publish more details about the judge’s findings in next week’s edition of Bulletin. We asked Mr Louis Erasmus of Thomas & Swanepoel Attorneys in Tzaneen, who acted for Quality and Expectra, for his comments on the judgement. He said, “We are firmly of the view that the award by the GTM of these two tenders, cumulatively exceeding our client’s tenders in value by some R22 900 000 was Constitutionally invalid and must be set aside by the High Court. Due to the interdicts now being granted, our client’s substantive review applications are being prepared and will be launched imminently.”
Hogs help elderly P10
Against the law. What law?... It is scary to drive through Tzaneen early in the morning, to see how chickens are being slaughtered on pavements, how fires are being made to cook (the chickens?) and how many people sleep in all sorts of strange places. To make an open fire in a public space (such as a pavement) is illegal and to slaughter animals in public spaces is equally illegal. Apparently not in Tzaneen though, where informal traders seem to enjoy the freedom of the town, to do as they like. We have a range of photos of unacceptable activities which we will present to the GTM for their comment. We will take our readers on a journey with these photos, once the GTM have responded to the questions that we will present with the photos.
Dit is mos nou al byna ‘n weeklikse gesig in Magoebaskloof. Dié vragmotor het gister0oggend (Donderdag) in Magoebaskloof gelukkig nie groot
M-kloof gets a facelift P8
moles veroorsaak nie. Niemand is ernstig in die ongeluk beseer nie en verkeer is nie erg ontwrig nie. Foto: Jacques Smuts.