It’s another busy week on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal; however, public sector interest has now turned to getting out a spate of quotation requests with short lead times.
Amid the low-value enquiries, it’s easy for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to stand out with two tender invitations and a request for information.
In the first notice, SARS says it wishes to appoint a service provider for the provision of an integrated strategic sourcing and e-procurement solution system. This has come about as new leadership has embarked on a modernisation journey which aims to transform its procurement operations into a more agile, technology-driven and competitive function.
Its current procurement consists of two primary solutions: one supporting strategic sourcing and the other supporting tactical buying, it explains. These solutions operate independently, not fully integrated, leading to inefficiencies and fragmented reporting. Accordingly, it is looking for a unified platform to consolidate procurement processes, ensure compliance, enhance data integrity and improve operational efficiency.
“The solution must integrate with the current ERP and specifically the financial, HR, real estate, inventory and asset management modules of such, as well as any other enterprise systems and external stakeholders, support both cloud and on‑premises deployment, and provide embedded dashboards, AI-driven insights, supplier collaboration and source‑to‑pay lifecycle capabilities,” it specifies.
In its next invitation, the organisation is advertising for network carrier and infrastructure services. The primary objective of this procurement is to provide for the delivery, continuity and cost-effectiveness of SARS’s data carrier (WAN), voice carrier and unified communication platform services.
SARS explains that it has sought to simplify the definition of the services by specifying the requirements, as far as possible, without specifying the detail of the underlying technologies.
“This approach puts greater emphasis on the agreed service levels, while allowing the service provider a certain freedom to configure the technology solutions in the most cost-effective manner,” it explains.
Finally, the revenue service is calling for information on a solution capable of efficiently handling the bulk signing and initialling of documents.
“Frequently, the organisation experiences surges in document processing requirements, particularly during periods of high-volume recruitment or large-scale onboarding – when a significant number of employment-related documents, such as offer letters and contracts, must be signed and initialled in a short timeframe,” it explains.
Currently, its hiring managers are required to manually sign and initial each document, a process that is time-consuming and inefficient when faced with large quantities. As a result, SARS explains there is a clear business imperative to implement a digital solution that can automate the process, ensuring speed, accuracy and compliance with legal and regulatory standards.
The organisation expects the system will alleviate administrative bottlenecks, streamline onboarding workflows, and reduce manual intervention, ultimately improving turnaround times and supporting the needs of a dynamic, growing workforce.
Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:
- Gauteng’s Provincial Treasury would like to appoint a bidder to develop and implement a web-based biometric authentication system on behalf of the Gauteng Provincial Government. The end-to-end personnel vetting system will use biometric data to verify identity and other information. This system must be integrated into the Department of Home Affairs database and Credit Bureau to support the verification of information and the decision-making process. The purpose of this verification is to confirm identity and to obtain additional demographic information, namely employment status, latest addresses and contact details.
Limpopo’s Department of Economic Development Environment and Tourism is advertising for the supply and delivery of 100 laptops, 115 laptop bags and 50 desktops. The department admits that some of its computer equipment and peripherals are old, while some are outdated and do not meet the latest technology. Over and above this, there is an immediate requirement for new laptops and desktops. Only service providers listed under SITA contract RFB740 are eligible to bid.
The State Information Technology Agency wishes to establish a five-year support and licence agreement for a software asset management (SAM) capability. The scope of work includes implementation, licences and subscriptions, maintenance, professional services and options for growth through new licences.
The Electoral Commission wishes to procure aggregated reverse data billed services that will allow it to pay for its customers' mobile data usage when those customers visit some of its websites. The IEC would prefer to deal with one service provider instead of all the network operators. As a result, the requirement is for an aggregator that can coordinate with all the network operators and provide the commission with one single interface and bill.
The IEC is also advertising for the upgrade of its network data centre and WAN switch infrastructure at its national office and provincial election offices. The commission reveals it has not refreshed its network switches in the data centre for over 10 years. With network throughput of many back-end devices going beyond 10Gbps, a bottleneck is created since some of the switches can support only up to 1Gbps. On the access layer level, some of the switches do not reliably support Power over Ethernet.
Eskom is calling for information on commercially available and/or proven technology for re-engineering of the OPC data access communication protocol for control systems that are impacted by the Microsoft security changes for systems using the Windows operating system and have the OPC classic architecture infrastructure based on DCOM-based communication (where OEM support is no longer available as they have exited the business). This is required for the Grootvlei Power station, where disparate systems need to communicate to each other in order to ensure proper control and operation between boiler and turbine. The current OPC servers and backup HMI have been in-service for over seven years (replaced in 2014) and have passed their planned replacement interval of three to six years, the utility explains. Additionally, the reliability of these components has drastically reduced as there have been intermittent failures experienced recently.
Eskom also requires information on the upgrade of the radwaste tracking program (RTP) software for its Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. The utility explains its existing RTP setup is not user-friendly. Simple actions such as editing, extraction or consolidation of data, etc, for shipments can only be performed through source code manipulation. Operating experience, it says, suggests these shortcomings were identified as early as 2014; however, the project initiated to correct these problems did not materialise due to contractual issues during development. The work-around practices implemented to-date have resulted in numerous issues, it adds.
New tenders
South African Revenue Service
SARS wishes to appoint a service provider for the provision of an integrated strategic sourcing and e-procurement solution system for five years.
Non-compulsory briefing: 27 February – Microsoft Teams, Link, Meeting ID: 317 913 306 600 32, Passcode: L4p5er3g
Tender no: RFP 33/2025
Information: Tender Office, Tel: 012-422-4078, E-mail: tenderoffice@sars.gov.za
Closing date: 12 March 2026
Tags: software, supply chain management, e-procurement, SCM
The department is also advertising for network carrier and infrastructure services.
Compulsory briefing: 4 March – Microsoft Teams, Link, Meeting ID: 370 395 231 929 16, Passcode: Sr7cp9pz
Tender no: RFP 04/2025
Information: Tender Office, Tel: 081-037-9162, E-mail: tenderoffice@sars.gov.za
Closing date: 27 March 2026
Tags: telecommunications, hardware, software, networking, wide area network, data, unified communications, voice communications
Provincial Treasury, Gauteng
The inland department is inviting bids for the development of a biometric authentication system, including support and maintenance for three years.
Non-compulsory briefing: 2 March – Microsoft Teams, Link
Tender no: GT/GPT/009/2026
Information: Mpilonhle Buthelezi, E-mail: mpilonhle.buthelezi@gauteng.gov.za
Closing date: 13 March 2026
Tags: software, software development, biometrics, authentication, services, support and maintenance
Department of Economic Development Environment and Tourism, Limpopo
The provincial department is advertising for the supply and delivery of 100 laptops, 115 bags and 50 desktops.
Note: Bid is open to bidders under SITA contract RFB740.
Tender no: EDET314/2025 RE-ADVERT
Information: VM Makhubele, Tel: 015-293-8852, E-mail: makhubelevm@ledet.gov.za
Closing date: 17 March 2026
Tags: hardware, computing, mobility, peripherals
State Information Technology Agency
The state-owned entity wishes to establish a five-year support and licence agreement for a software asset management capability.
Non-compulsory briefing: 24 February – Microsoft Teams
Tender no: RFB 3207/2025
Information: Elelwani Mundalamo, Tel: 012-367-3995, E-mail: Elelwani.Mundalamo@sita.co.za
Closing date: 13 March 2026
Tags: services, software, software, licensing, software asset management, SAM, support and maintenance
Electoral Commission
The IEC is inviting bids for reverse data billing services.
Non-compulsory briefing: 25 February – Virtual
Tender no: IEC/ICT-01/2026
Information: Yash Sookan, Tel:012-622-5700, E-mail: Sookany@elections.org.za
Closing date: 16 March 2026
Tags: telecommunications, internet, data, services
The commission is also advertising for the upgrade of its network data centre and WAN switch infrastructure.
Non-compulsory briefing: 26 February – Virtual
Tender no: IEC/ICT-02/2026
Information: Yash Sookan, Tel:012-622-5700, E-mail: Sookany@elections.org.za
Closing date: 13 March 2026
Tags: hardware, networking
Request for information
South African Revenue Service
Interested service providers are invited to submit information on a bulk documents e-signature solution.
Non-compulsory briefing: 6 March – Microsoft Teams
Tender no: RFI 07/2025
Information: SARS Tender Office, Tel: 081-037-9162, E-mail: tenderoffice@sars.gov.za
Closing date: 19 March 2026
Tags: software, e-signature, security
Eskom
The utility is calling for information on commercially available and/or proven technology for re-engineering of the OPC data access communication protocol for control systems that are impacted by the Microsoft security changes for systems using the Windows operating system and have the OPC classic architecture infrastructure based on DCOM-based communication (where OEM support is no longer available as they have exited the business).
Tender no: E2574GXMPGRO
Information: Manala Mabhena, Tel:017-779-8789, E-mail: MabhenMM@eskom.co.za
Closing date: 6 March 2026
Tags: software, data access
Eskom also requires information on the upgrade of the Radwaste Tracking Program software.
Tender no: E2560GXNOU
Information: Andiswa Ziliso, Tel:021-522-3818, E-mail: Zilisoae@eskom.co.za
Closing date: 31 March 2026
Tags: software
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