The eThekwini Municipality approved R1.1 billion in public tenders over a three-month period.
A report presented to the eThekwini council detailed the tender awards for November 2025, December 2025, and January 2026 as follows:
- R276 million tenders in January 2026
- R152 million in tenders in December 2025
- R726 million in tenders in November 2025
The report stated that the city manager will investigate the awards with a view to taking disciplinary, criminal, and recovery actions, where wilful and negligent violation of Supply Chain Management Policies and Municipal Finance Management Act provisions are observed.
During February’s council meeting, the EFF called for the scrapping of tenders because they did not benefit the poor.
Thabani Miya, EFF member in eThekwini, said he was concerned about the tender process.
He said the millions of youth in the country, who are the majority, did not benefit from these tenders. He claimed that neither women nor people with disabilities are among the beneficiaries.
“Tenders are given to the usual suspects, often the same individuals. We are quite aware of this. Only men, powerful men, get these tenders, and that is wrong. This process has failed the youth because we cannot industrialise and find work for them. At least if there are such opportunities where there are public tenders, the youth must be catered to first, and they must be prioritised.”
Miya stated that women must also have opportunities, as very few are benefiting from tenders.
“Although we are the EFF, we are against tenders. If you cannot distribute these public tenders equitably, you might as well join us in a big eradication of tenders in their totality. Then we insource,” he said.
Sithembiso Mzimela, ANC councillor in eThekwini, said the report continues to highlight black empowerment, which is the policy of the ANC.
“Our president, Cyril Ramaphosa, confirmed that the policy is going somewhere, where we see black people benefitting and correcting the imbalances of the past. The report makes it clear that 50% of these awards were local-based companies and 43 % were black owned companies,” he said.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za
