The Gauteng Health Department is being sued in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) after being accused of awarding a multimillion-rand medical waste tender – believed to be irregular and unlawful – to its preferred candidate during the procurement process.
IOL reports that Buhle Medical Waste applied for an urgent interdict to stop the awarding of more than R500m to Tshenolo Waste and Phuting Medical Waste Management to collect and dispose of waste.
Tshenolo Waste was given a R314m contract to service Tshwane and Johannesburg, while Phuting Waste recorded a R211m contract for the West Rand, Sedibeng and Ekurhuleni, in the R525m tender bid.
Buhle Waste – which lost the tender bid – argues that the department did not tell the bidders it was willing to extend its validity date from 28 September to 27 October for the three-year contract.
Additionally, said Buhle Waste, which was contracted in 2015, the department has always failed to meet its financial obligations towards its current contract, compelling them to withhold its services to hospitals across the province in February last year.
The department had failed to pay more than R27m for two years, plunging services into chaos, with garbage piling up at the hospitals.
Applicant Evelyn Masedi for Buhle Waste asked the court to consider an order preventing the two companies from starting their services, pending the outcome of a judicial review for which Buhle Waste had previously applied.
She added that bidders were not consulted in time to consider their options – and that the department gave them just one day after deciding on the extension date.
“Once the department committed itself to a legal process of extension, it was bound by it … Even though the department now belatedly and contradictorily contends that the extension was not necessary, the reality is that once it committed itself to a course of action, unless it seeks to review it and set it aside, it needs to comply therewith. This is a trite proposition of law. Without more, the tender has lapsed,” she said.
Both Tshenolo and Phuting challenged Masedi’s application, denying that the tender had lapsed.
In their court papers, Tshenolo Waste representative director Tshepiso Ramonyadiwa wrote: “Considering the contents of the applicant’s founding affidavit, the applicant does not seek to challenge the request that the department made to the bidders to extend the validity period of their own bids.
“The letter that the department sent to bidders requested them to extend the validity period of their own bids and not of the tender process.”
In its replying affidavit, the department opposed the applicant’s legal challenge, saying it was not legally possible to stop the department from awarding a tender.
“This relief is an interim interdict. I am advised that interdicts concern themselves with the future and not events that have already occurred. Curiously, the applicant seeks this final order without the record and does not seek the record in Part A.
“This order is sought on speculative grounds and innuendo without verified facts in the applicant’s own version. This is entirely untenable.
“On the applicant’s own version, on 15 September 2023, it was aware that there were two successful bidders, and on 11 September 2023, a publication was issued by the department where the names of both successful and unsuccessful bidders appeared.
“It is surprising as to why the applicant would bring an application and pretend as if the tender has not yet been awarded and prefer to bring this application on speculation grounds,” said the department.
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