Apology: CSCEC and MECSA comply with Sanral tender requirements

Moneyweb published an article on 15 November 2022 under the headline “Compliance issues emerge in Sanral contracts awarded to Chinese JVs”.

These contracts related to the tenders Sanral awarded to the CSCEC Base Major JV for the R5.02 billion overhaul of Durban’s N2/N3 EB Cloete interchange and the R2.44 billion contract for the N3 Ashburton project, as well as the R4.05 billion tender awarded to the China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC) MECSA JV for the construction of the Wild Coast Mtentu Bridge on the N2.

The article inaccurately stated that CSCEC and MECSA did not comply with the tender requirements for the recent mega contract awards made by Sanral and had been thrown into doubt.

The information in the article was based on various searches by Moneyweb of the CIDB (Construction Industry Development Board) Register of Contractors.

The searches were based on the names Sanral mentioned in its press release.

It has now emerged that the companies Moneyweb identified as not having the necessary gradings were not the companies that are part of the JVs, despite the names being similar.

The CIDB has confirmed that both CSCEC South Africa (Pty) Ltd and MECSA Construction are registered with the CIDB, and both have a Level 9 civil engineering grading (9CE).

Moneyweb regrets the error and has retracted the article.

Read:
Sanral says projects awarded to Chinese companies ‘will use local materials’
Chinese companies win the bulk of Sanral’s cancelled tenders
Sanral cancels R17.5bn in adjudicated tenders

CIDB director of corporate communications Kotli Molise this week attributed the “there are no records to display” response to Moneyweb searches of CSCEC and MECSA on the CIDB Register of Companies to “a temporary system error”.

“We apologise for this error, which is due to the fact that the CIDB has recently moved systems to a new supplier. We are still overcoming teething problems of the new systems,” she said.