It’s another quiet week on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal, requiring the ICT industry to turn to local government, as a wide range of metro, district and local municipalities come to the party with a wide range of requests.
The majority of these tenders will be decided after next month’s Local Government Elections.
The Department of Basic Education takes the top spot, with a tender advertisement on behalf of the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT), which invites proposals from interested service providers for the supply of cloud services for the South African School Administration and Management System (SA-SAMS). The contract will run for 36 months.
NECT explains that SA-SAMS is the national administrative backbone for the country's basic education sector. It serves over 12 million learners and 400 000 educators across approximately 23 000 public schools, making it one of the largest education management systems in Africa. It supports the daily operations of schools by enabling data-driven school management and reporting.
It underpins four core functional modules:
- Manage school: General school-level administration, including infrastructure, term planning and timetable setup.
- Manage learner: Learner registration, attendance, discipline, progression and learner records.
- Manage staff: Educator and non-educator records, allocations, leave and HR administration.
- Manage curriculum and assessment: Class allocation, subject management, mark capturing and performance tracking.
“Additionally, SA-SAMS plays a statutory reporting role, providing the Department of Basic Education, provincial departments and government oversight bodies with critical operational and performance data. This information directly informs education budgeting, planning, policy development, and resource allocation nationally and provincially,” says NECT.
Despite its “foundational role”, the system in its current form is outdated and not well-suited to support the evolving demands of a modern, digitised education system, the NECT explains.
“Technically, SA-SAMS operates as a monolithic application built on PHP 7.4, layered over MySQL databases and hosted on Ubuntu-based servers. The application is largely deployed on-premises in schools and districts, with many components requiring manual updates and interventions.”
In response to these systemic challenges, the Department of Basic Education and NECT has initiated a modernisation project to replace the legacy system with a more scalable, secure, integrated and user-friendly platform that can support both operational and strategic needs. This modernised system is being developed using open-source technologies (primarily OpenEMIS) and will feature a modular, service-oriented architecture, enabling cloud hosting, real-time reporting, secure offline capabilities and integration with other departmental systems.
Services must ensure data residency in South Africa and compliance with government ICT standards. The solution must deliver 99.9% uptime, disaster recovery and business continuity, while supporting Ubuntu LTS environments and secure access via identity‑aware proxy.
The scope of work requires bidders to implement multi‑zone high availability, autoscaling, integrated monitoring dashboards and secure firewall rules. Providers must also demonstrate capability in role‑based access control, encryption in transit and at rest, and compliance with SITA MIOS security standards.
The Department of Basic Education will host a compulsory briefing session on 6 October over Microsoft Teams, with submissions closing at 11am on 26 October.
Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:
- The City of Cape Town is advertising for the supply, support and maintenance of public key infrastructure, software, services, development and licensing. It says it does not require hardware security modules as part of the proposed solution and will not consider solutions exclusively hosted in the public cloud due to architecture and security considerations.
Cederberg Municipality is inviting bids for the provision of network support services, hosting and VOIP services. Interested parties will need to pay a non-refundable deposit of R1 140 to access the relevant tender documentation.
The Eastern Cape Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture is advertising for a rate-based contract for the supply of ICT server-related infrastructure. The department says it will only consider vendors and service providers registered with SITA.
Limpopo’s Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs wishes to appoint a service provider for the development of a geographic information system (GIS) strategy. The department says its GIS usage is currently fragmented, with limited integration. To address this, a comprehensive strategy is sought to establish an enterprise GIS platform that will strengthen spatial governance and aligns with national, provincial and municipal policy priorities.
Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality in the Northern Cape is calling for the supply, delivery, installation, maintenance and servicing of new printers for three years on a lease agreement. Prospective service providers must show their capabilities to render for the service and the project team must clearly indicate designation for each member of the team.
uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal wishes to appoint a panel for IT. The skills required include professional services, application software, digital solutions, cyber security services, telecommunications, ICT infrastructure and related specialist services.
Xhariep District Municipality in the Free State district is re-advertising for the provision, licensing, hosting, support, maintenance and enhancement of an mSCOA-compliant financial management system. The district’s current system supports its financial management, budgeting, reporting, revenue management, expenditure management, asset management, supply chain management and statutory reporting requirements, it says.
Ugu District Municipality requires provision of software licensing and a service level agreement for its existing M-Files application software.
Musina Local Municipality in Limpopo is calling for the supply, delivery, setup and configuration of hardware and peripherals. This will include laptops, tablets, desktop computers, printers and a wide range of peripherals.
New tenders
City of Cape Town
The Western Cape metro is advertising for the supply, support and maintenance of public key infrastructure, software, services, development and licensing.
Non-compulsory briefing: 22 October – Microsoft Teams, Link
Tender no: 085S/2026/27
Information: E-mail: PKI.Tenders@capetown.gov.za
Closing date: 2 November 2026
Tags: software, security, hardware, public key infrastructure, PLI, services, support and maintenance
Cederberg Municipality
Bids are invited for the provision of network support services, hosting and VOIP services.
Tender no: CED 14/2026-2027
Information: Anthony Jantjies, Tel: 027-482-8000, E-mail: anthonyj@cederberg.gov.za
Closing date: 2 November 2026
Tags: telecommunications, software, hardware, networking, services, hosting, voice over IP, VOIP, support and maintenance
Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Eastern Cape
The provincial department is advertising for a rate-based contract for the supply of ICT server-related infrastructure. Limited to SITA registered IT vendors/service providers.
Tender no: SCMU14-26/27-0009
Information: Mkululi Maqubela, Tel: 043-492-0232, E-mail: mkululi.maqubela@ecsrac.gov.za
Closing date: 30 October 2026
Tags: hardware, servers
Department of Basic Education
Proposals are requested for the provision of cloud hosting services for the Modernised Schools Administration Systems (SA-SAMS).
Compulsory briefing: 6 October – Microsoft Teams, Link
Tender no: NECT/2026/10/01
Information: Martha Nkosi, Tel: 012-752-6200, E-mail: scm@nect.org.za
Closing date: 26 October 2026
Tags: services, hosting, cloud computing
Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Limpopo
The provincial department wishes to appoint a service provider for the development of a GIS strategy.
Tender no: COGHSTA B008/26-27FY
Information: Jullian Thantsha, Tel:015-294-2290, E-mail: masenya.jullian@limpopo.gov.za
Closing date: 20 November 2026
Tags: services, consulting, geographic information system, GIS
Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality
The Northern Cape municipality is calling for the supply, delivery, installation, maintenance and servicing of new printers for three years on a lease agreement for 2027/28 – 2029/30.
Tender no: KHM T003/09/2026
Information: Diana Vermeulen, Tel:053-285-0998, E-mail: d.vermeulen@karoohoogland.gov.za
Closing date: 3 November 2026
Tags: hardware, printing, imaging, services, support and maintenance
uMgungundlovu District Municipality
The KwaZulu-Natal district wishes to appoint a panel for IT.
Compulsory briefing: 6 October.
Tender no: 12 - 2026
Information: Thembeka Ndlovu, Tel:033-897-6708, E-mail: tenderenquiry@umdm.gov.za
Closing date: 2 November 2026
Tags: hardware, software, services
Xhariep District Municipality
The Free State district is re-advertising for the provision, licensing, hosting, support, maintenance and enhancement of an mSCOA-compliant financial management system for three years.
Tender no: XDM/MSCOA/26/27-3
Information: Thandeka Tshabalala, Tel:066-416-3298, E-mail: tshabalalat@xhariep.gov.za
Closing date: 30 October 2026
Tags: software, ERP, enterprise resource management, services, hosting, support and maintenance
Ugu District Municipality
The KwaZulu-Natal district requires provision of M-Files application software licence and service level agreement for 36 months.
Tender no: UGU-05-1731-2026
Information: Navrone Latchmigadu, Tel:039-688-3381, E-mail: navrone.latchmigadu@ugu.gov.za
Closing date: 23 October 2026
Tags: services, document management, software
Musina Local Municipality
The Limpopo municipality is calling for the supply, delivery, setup and configuration of hardware and peripherals for three years.
Tender no: 17-2026/27
Information: Lesedi Mokoena, Tel:083-928-1853, E-mail: lesedim@musina.gov.za
Closing date: 28 October 2026
Tags: hardware
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