September 24, 2024

Small businesses to benefit from SANRAL new upcoming projest as they have a mandate to ensure value flows through to small, medium, and micro enterprises.

The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) has announced an injection of up to R28 billion into the construction industry in the first half of this year. As part of SANRAL’s efforts to deepen transformation and in terms of its Interim Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP), at least 30% of these will be allocated to smaller black-owned construction companies. Through these contracts, SANRAL aims to ensure that small businesses graduate to become major construction companies.

SANRAL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Reginald Demana, said that wherever the SANRAL projects are, the agency has a mandate that sees value flowing through to small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), local contractors and local communities.

The announcement comes after SANRAL closed 77 tenders worth R6.43 billion in December 2023. The agency is on a mission to accelerate work in the construction industry early in the first half of 2024. Demana says SANRAL intends to put out at least another 70 tenders to the market in the next couple of weeks. This will result in about R28 billion of tenders advertised under the Interim PPP in the current 2023/2024 financial year.

“There is quite a lot of work we want to dish out. By March, we want to have about R28 billion worth of tenders in the market. However, some will be closed towards April when we enter the new financial year,” said Demana.

As an implementing agency of government, SANRAL’s processes have been clean, transparent and fair.
“The projects are always on time and within budget, the contracting methodologies of SANRAL are internationally recognised. As a 25-year organisation, the agency also has qualified project managers who track the projects and monitor expenditure and the quality of execution,” he said.

He stressed that the work that SANRAL has put out to market is spread across the entire country through its four regions:
• The Western Region (Western Cape and Northern Cape) will get contracts worth R600 million.
• The Southern Region (Eastern Cape) will get its contracts worth R2.8 billion.
• The Eastern Region (Free State and KwaZulu-Natal) will get contracts worth R2.1 billion.
• The Northern Region (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West) will get contracts worth over R500 million.

The Eastern and Southern regions are allocated much bigger portions as they encompass significant infrastructure projects such as the N2/N3 expansion in KwaZulu-Natal and N2 Wild Coast project in the Eastern Cape.

“The full rollout of the additional contracts, that we are going to issue will include dividing the R28 billion across the entire country, in all provinces. We try and make sure that we are distributing work and tenders equitably so that we don’t leave any part of the country feeling that we are not looking after the national road network in their area,” said Demana.

As SANRAL embarks on this extensive rollout of tenders, the aim is to stimulate economic growth, promote infrastructure, development and create opportunities across the country.

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