WATCH: SIU wins order setting aside R85m KZN-Mozambique border wall tender

Des Erasmus

The Special Tribunal has set aside an R85 million KwaZulu-Natal-Mozambique border wall tender after finding that the ISF Shula Joint Venture used a fraudulent B-BBEE certificate, submitted an expired Letter of Good Standing, and failed to meet mandatory financial capacity requirements.

The wall was commissioned by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport “in response to community concerns about rampant cross-border crime, particularly the smuggling and trafficking of stolen and hijacked vehicles into Mozambique,” the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said in a statement on Friday.

In July 2016, the community of uMkhanyakude in KZN protested about rampant crime in the area. On 29 March 2018, the department published an invitation to tender for the construction of an 8km concrete barrier wall between uMkhanyakude and Mozambique.

A total of 14 bids were submitted. Six were found to be unresponsive, the majority because they did not meet the requirement that the tenderer