South Africa's response to the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic has been praised by international health officials and has undoubtedly saved many lives. Nevertheless, the burden of lockdown conditions has had a significantly restrictive impact on the private sector. Outside of personal protective equipment and medical supplies, government procurement has also been erratic with many projects put on hold or cancelled altogether.
That is not to say that the public sector has been reluctant to award high value tenders during the period. In fact, a look at the top 10 tender awards over the period reveals a number of big ticket items that have been given the go-ahead.
1. and 2.
South African National Roads Agency Limited
Solution: Freeway management system
Value: R1.7 billion
Successful bidder: Tolcon GroupWith its original eight year freeway management systems (FMS) contract coming to a close, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) decided to “allow more local participation” by dividing the work into regional contracts. The tenders for the Gauteng and Western Cape systems have both been awarded to Tolcon Group at a cost of R891 million and R830 million respectively. This follows the allocation at the start of the year of the KwaZulu-Natal FMS tender to Netronix for R437 million. All three contracts will run for a duration of six years, with a possible extension for an additional two years.
The scope of the project requires that the companies manage traffic through the use of various technologies. This includes: CCTV cameras, traffic sensors and other data sources;information dissemination technologies such as variable message signs, e-mail, social media platforms, media and a website; advanced traffic management techniques such as ramp metering, shoulder lane running, and variable speed limits; delay minimisation in the event of an incident; as well as response co-ordination with other authorities.
The contract is divided into design, build, operate and maintenance phases which specify the expectations from taking over the existing FMS, including all hardware and software, to rolling out enhancements, expansions and infills. Once the new system is in place the company will be responsible for the staffing and operations of the FMS as well as maintenance – both preventative and responsive – on all equipment under its management.
3.
Gauteng Department of Health
Solution: Health information system
Value: R339 million
Successful bidder: Gijima
IT services company Gijima has secured a R339 million tender from the State IT Agency (SITA) to provide a fully managed health information system (HIS) to the Gauteng Department of Health.
In the tender documentation, SITA explained that the provincial department was pursuing the implementation of an eHealth architecture, in line with the national department's eHealth strategy. “This system will serve as the cornerstone, to facilitate the attainment of the integrated healthcare requirements. The anticipated outcome is an operational HIS deployed across the hospital and provincial primary healthcare facilities.” it said.
Once implemented, the system is expected to have a considerable impact in the manner in which medical information is stored, accessed and used. It will also provide the department with tools to monitor activity at patient, doctor, clinic, pharmacy and hospital levels. The system must also be able to produce a smartcard which contains basic patient demographic data and the unique patient identifier number as well as other data agreed by GDOH.
4.
South African Social Security Agency
Solution: Wide area network
Value: R204 million
Successful bidder: MTN
The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has contracted MTN to render wide area network services for a period of five years. The agency has 445 offices located in all nine provinces of South Africa. The agreement consolidates it previous arrangements with Telkom and MTN into a single service provider contract. APN connectivity will continue to be provided by Vodacom.
For the first 14 months of the contract the company will be expected to supply SASSA with provision, support, maintenance and management of last mile services. Following this initial phase the scope of services will extend to include MPLS VPN and quality of service; hosting centre; security and internet; external/third party connectivity; and SIP services.
5.
South African National Roads Agency Limited
Solution: SAP, digital transformation
Value: R172 million
Successful bidder: Tech Mahindra South Africa
Tech Mahindra South Africa beat out seven competitors to win a Sanral tender to deliver a SAP “digital transformation”. The project follows the agency spending the greater part of 2017 to understand the goals and requirements of the project that would provide a modern and highly productive business environment.
Sanral explains: “The organisation currently functions in a siloed environment which hampers organisational cohesiveness, creates a substantial wastage of resources including bottlenecks and will detract from the wider organisational objectives of maintaining a good governance practice as well as maintaining financial and environment sustainability.
Tech Mahindra will be responsible for the discovery and development of completed end-to-end workflows and processes as well as integration of disparate systems to ensure that all integrated systems have been enabled to ensure that relevant material information is easy to access, verify and report upon. This also applies to ensuring externally hosted systems and interfaces are correctly integrated into the SAP landscape and applicable modules.
6.
State Information Technology Agency / South African Police Service
Solution: Wide area network (WAN), local area network (LAN), environmental equipment and related firmware/ software
Value: R157 million
Successful bidder: Nexio
SITA has been particularly busy during the lockdown period, issuing numerous new advertisements and making decisions on its long list of outstanding tenders. In this tender, which dates back to 2018, the agency appointed Nexio to provide maintenance and support of wide area network (WAN), local area network (LAN), environmental equipment and related firmware/ software to the South African Police Service.
The SAPS ICT infrastructure uses a combination of various technologies such as routers, switches, hubs, UPS’S, aircon, wireless, IP telephony equipment. Most of this hardware has either reached end of life support or is operated out of original equipment manufacturer warranty.
The contract will run for a period of three years.
7.
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, KwaZulu-Natal
Solution: Security system upgrade
Value: R42 million
Successful bidder: Ezingeni Security and Cleaning
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has appointed Ezingeni Security and Cleaning to decommission, improve and upgrade its security systems at its offices, official residence and institutions.
The department notes that in light of increased digitalisation in business processes and rising cyber threats, the protection of physical office spaces – including the information and assets contained within – has become even more critical. Furthermore, technology convergence is necessitating the convergence of security technology and systems.
The contract will see new CCTV and biometric access control systems rolled out and backed up by a support and maintenance agreement. These systems are expected to benefit from advances in technology such as IP networking; real-time alerts via e-mail and SMS; face recognition and tracking; and remote viewing capabilities via the web and smart phone applications.
In its announcement the department stated the R42 million price tag was still subject to negotiation.
8.
Department of Education, Western Cape
Solution: Digitally administered teaching resources
Value: R31 million
Successful bidder: Green Shoots Consulting
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on schools and the manner in which education is delivered to learners. However, the Western Cape is the only provincial education department to feature in this list of lockdown tender awards.
The contract will see Green Shoots Consulting enabling a cohort of 500 schools (grades 3 to 7) with digitally administered weekly exercises, online maths assessments, downloadable teaching resources and teacher training. The software and service is required to provide reports on completion of exercises, testing in real time, detailed analysis of learner performance and provide insight into misconceptions and error analysis.
9.
Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal
Solution: Automated biometric identification system
Value: R29.6 million
Successful bidder: Optiflex Information Technology
In the second such contract for the province, the Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs has selected Optiflex Information Technology to provide it with an automated biometric identification system.
The contract is being brought into place following a qualified audit opinion from the Auditor General for the 2017/18 financial year as a result of poor management of the Izinduna and traditional council secretaries.
The system will provide the department with an accurate database of employees, Izinduna and TC secretaries and facilitate and automated headcount as well as provide real-time reporting on time and attendance. The department says it will also be used to minimise the double-dipping of Izinduna that are receiving salaries from the department and other employers.
10.
National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications
Solution: ERP system
Value: R29.6 million
Successful bidder: AccTech Systems/4Sight
Without a fully integrated ERP system and centralised data warehouse for data mining and manipulation, the NRCS says it realised the need to modernise its business processes that are critical to render effective support to the core business functions.
AccTech Systems (a subsidiary of 4Sight Holdings) has been selected to supply and implement an ERP system that encompasses financial management, supply chain management, human resource management (including payroll module) and facilities and warehouse management.
The scope of work will see the companies enabling interfacing with relevant systems used by the NRCS; migration of existing data, customisation, web-based access and smartphone compatibility as well as provision of the system source code. A five year support contract is included.
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