Independent Newspapers
Durban – Low-cost housing construction company Gralio Precast, which has scored millions from eThekwini contracts, has lashed out at the municipal manager, Sbu Sithole, accusing him of interfering in a housing tender in the multibillion-rand Cornubia project, north of the city. Picture: Colleen Dardagan
Durban – Low-cost housing construction company Gralio Precast, which has scored millions from eThekwini contracts, has lashed out at the municipal manager, S’bu Sithole, accusing him of interfering in a housing tender in the multibillion-rand Cornubia project, north of the city.
The company, which is owned by Shireen Annamalay, the wife of businessman Jay Singh, who was involved in the city’s failed bus privatisation deal, has secured a Durban High Court interim interdict stopping the awarding of the contract, saying it can no longer trust city officials who are acting in a “clandestine and unusual manner”.
It wanted a judge to order that it be granted the R122-million tender – as recommended by an attorney hired by the city to adjudicate Gralio’s appeal.
Gralio has previously been criticised for sub-standard work in other housing projects, a charge it has denied, and is named in the Manase report as having been awarded two irregular housing contracts.
Singh has been accused of making a hefty profit through his company Remant Alton, which bought the bus fleet for R70m and sold it back for more than R400m.
Annamalay, in her urgent application before Judge Kate Pillay last week, hit back at her critics, saying the National Home Builders Regulations Council had given the company “glowing reports” – which she attached to the court papers – and said the Manase report was untested in any court of law.
The dispute began in May last year when the city informed Gralio that, in spite of its R122.8m bid being the lowest of four tenders for the second phase of housing at Cornubia, the city had awarded the tender to Sanyathi Civil Engineering for R32.8m more.
Annamalay said the bid adjudication committee had recommended Gralio for the contract, but this had been rejected by Sithole.
She lodged an appeal. Thirteen months – and many lawyers’ letters later – she said she had heard nothing.
Then, quite by chance, when a company representative visited the city’s tender section, he was handed a copy of a report dated November last year by attorney NC Nkomo who had been tasked by the city to oversee the appeal and who had recommended in Gralio’s favour.
Annamalay said Nkomo had referred to another report, dated January last year, by Zandile Sithole of the supply chain management who was clearly not supportive of Gralio.
In that report, Sithole made untrue allegations that Gralio had shareholders “who are in the service of the state” and that the tender price was too low to substantiate the bill of quantities.
Both of these were rejected by Nkomo as being unsubstantiated.
“Nkomo refers to the allegations that we receive a substantial amount of work from the municipality. And he concludes that while the concern is genuine, this should have been raised previously and investigated, but not as it is about to award a tender to another,” she said.
Nkomo said the municipal manager had “sent back” the tender recommendation, saying “the company is subject to the Manase investigation”.
Nkomo pointed out that this “disqualification” was based on a report that had not been made public and which to date had not been tested in a court of law.
Annamalay said the interference by Sithole and the non-disclosure of Nkomo’s report “smacked of a high degree of impropriety”.
It had come to her attention that the city was attempting to have the contract deemed a “non-award”, merging it with another and awarding it to Vumani Civils and Afriscan Construction, neither of which had tendered in the first place.
Judge Pillay granted the interdict giving the city two weeks to file its response. The matter will be back in court early next month.
tania.broughton@inl.co.za
The Mercury
