Independent Development Trust in ‘bid manipulation’ controversy over road tenders worth R436m

KwaZulu-Natal road rehabilitation tenders involving five companies, nine key roads and a combined R436-million appear to have been manipulated to favour certain companies.

The Independent Development Trust (IDT) handled the tender process on behalf of the provincial transport department.

One company, Bulkeng, clinched a R197-million contract — the biggest of the lot.

The IDT seems to have an affinity for Bulkeng, with the company previously scoring the majority share of a problematic R800-million tender to supply oxygen plants to health facilities across South Africa.

That contract was later cancelled following an exposé by amaBhungane and Daily Maverick last year, with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) appointing the audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to investigate allegations regarding irregularities in the oxygen plant tender.

Read more: R836m oxygen plants deal to be cancelled following ‘ghost contractor’ revelations

Amabhungane understands that IDT officials dug in their heels, saying they would not cooperate with the PwC investigation until the National Department of Health (NDoH) had been informed. As a result, DPWI minister Dean Macpherson has put the IDT board on terms to ensure that they fully cooperate with PwC.

Now, the IDT is at the centre of another controversy.

Internal IDT procurement documents seen by amaBhungane, including bid submissions, company documents and evaluation reports for the five different procurement processes, indicate the possibility of bid rigging.

The documents show how points awarded to certain companies were seemingly manipulated — or appeared arbitrary — and how the IDT apparently ignored key documentation. In the case of Bulkeng, amaBhungane’s investigation suggests that some reference documents were forged.

Neither the IDT nor the KZN Department of Transport (DoT) responded to amaBhungane’s detailed request for comment, including on why the department outsourced procurement to the IDT, given that the KZN DoT routinely handles similar contracts.

The rocky road tenders 

In 2022, the IDT issued tenders for the following roads to be rehabilitated:

• Road P61 in the Ugu District, awarded to Bulkeng;


• Road P284, awarded to Nolan’s Earthworks and Plant Hire for R189-million, also in the Ugu District;


• Road D1911, awarded to Big Mac Plant and Civil for R18-million, in the Empangeni region;


• Roads D826, D657, P528, awarded to Zack’s Business Enterprise for R16-million, in the eThekwini Municipality, Durban; and


• Roads L2724, D1652, D1664, awarded to KKL IT Solutions and Projects for R14-million, in the eThekwini Municipality, Durban.

The tender processes for roads P61 and P284 ran concurrently, opening on 21 October 2022 and closing on 2 December 2022.

The rest also ran concurrently, from 22 November 2022 until 15 December 2022.

Another Bulkeng bid

According to procurement documents, Bulkeng once again scored a lucrative contract via the IDT through a possibly irregular process.

This is not the first time Bulkeng has courted controversy under IDT oversight.

Last year, amaBhungane and Daily Maverick exposed the company's R428-million contract to supply oxygen tanks to health facilities nationwide, which was procured through a highly irregular process in 2023.

IDT chief executive Tebogo Malaka and NDoH director-general Dr Sandile Buthelezi pushed the project over the finish line despite glaring red flags.

Read more: ‘Ghost company’ bags R428m oxygen plants tender for state hospitals

In November 2024, the director of Bulkeng, Nkosinathi Ndlovu, was found dead days after we questioned him about the matter, prompting an ongoing police investigation.

In December, Macpherson launched a forensic investigation into the IDT’s handling of that tender, appointing PwC in January this year to lead the probe.

Following Ndlovu’s mysterious death, his sister Thembisile Thango took over the company in February.

According to her Facebook profile, Thango works for the ANC’s Parliamentary Constituency Office in Pietermaritzburg.

Thembisile Thango. (Photo: Facebook)

Thango's Facebook information.

KZN ANC spokesperson Fanle Sibisi told amaBhungane that Thango was no longer employed by the ANC following the May 2024 general elections. He added that Thango had never donated money to the ANC.

Thango did not respond to amaBhungane’s request for comment.

Vital road 

According to a statement by the KZN Department of Transport last year, P61 is a “vital” road connecting several municipal roads in the uMuziwabantu Local Municipality and a “critical artery” leading to the N2, creating “a significant pathway for commerce, travel, and regional growth”.

While Bulkeng bid for roads P61 and P284, documents seen by amaBhungane show it was disqualified from the process for P284 because IDT officials claimed the company’s Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act certificate was invalid.

This certificate is a mandatory requirement that confirms a company’s coverage against workplace injuries or diseases.

Having an invalid certificate would automatically disqualify any company from bidding, but amaBhungane confirmed that Bulkeng’s certificate was, in fact, valid at the time, and the company won the contract for P61 using the same certificate.

Officials also claimed that Bulkeng failed to submit a list of subcontractors for P284 — another mandatory requirement for the tender.

This would have been an unusual oversight because Bulkeng had indeed submitted this required list in the case of the tender for P61, which ran concurrently.

Instead, Nolan’s Earthworks was awarded the contract for P284 as the only shortlisted bidder and the only bidder out of 13 companies to list its subcontractors — another anomaly.

Tender evaluation for road P284.

While the tender evaluation report claims to be for road P61, it is actually for road P284.

Massage 

Bulkeng’s successful quote for P61 also appears to have needed massaging.

Tender documents show that Bulkeng initially bid R205-million, exceeding the price threshold set by the company’s Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grading.

Bulkeng has a CIDB grading of 8 CE, precluding contractors from working on projects valued above R200-million.

According to the IDT’s submission to the management bid adjudication committee (MBAC), officials told Bulkeng it had miscalculated its Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) contribution, saying it had calculated it at 6% of the bill of quantities instead of 5%.

The IDT's letter to Bulkeng.

AmaBhungane has studied this information and found that Bulkeng calculated the EPWP at 4.7%. Still, the IDT allowed Bulkeng to “correct” this.

However, this is not all Bulkeng did.

In “correcting” its EPWP contribution, Bulkeng decreased its construction costs by more than R6-million. It also lowered its CIDB build programme contribution by almost R200,000, bringing the total quote down to R197-million — just below the Grade 8 threshold.

IDT officials told the MBAC: “It should be noted that no unfair advantage was afforded to the bidder since they were the only responsive bidder and adjustment did not increase the original bid amount.”

MBAC concerns on Bulkeng's offer.

After the contract was awarded, however, costs shot up again.

According to the KZN DoT’s 2023/2024 annual performance plan, the project cost is now R338,919,000, though a Select Committee on Public Infrastructure report (dated 4 December 2024) puts the total estimated cost at R238.9-million.

Either figure exceeds Bulkeng’s 8 CE grading limit.

Forgery?

Bulkeng’s bid submission includes further red flags suggesting possible forgery in documents it supplied as proof of similar work done in the past — another mandatory requirement.

Over two days, Ndlovu is said to have collected six signatures from clients spread across the country.

Curiously, all the references share a similar mistake: the client signatures were made where Ndlovu’s should have been, and Ndlovu signed where the client should have signed. IDT officials did not appear to question these red flags.

Further, amaBhungane contacted one of the referees, Qinisa Construction, whose director, Justin Mthembu, told us that “the signature [is] not mine and the contract details also not mine”.



Ndlovu also listed another company, Torrex Mining Group, as a reference; this company, however, does not exist.

AmaBhungane contacted the director of Torrex Mining Services, Maasene Kgatle, who confirmed that the signature on the document was not his, adding, "I never heard of this company before”.

Bulkeng's client reference from Torrex.

Other companies’ scoring anomalies  

While Bulkeng lost out on the tender for road P284, Nolan’s Earthworks, based in Pietermaritzburg, secured the R189-million contract.

Its bid exceeded the department’s initial R110-million estimate, and official statements later placed the contract’s value at more than R190-million.

That project was handed over on 13 February 2024 and links Port Edward and Izingolweni in southern KwaZulu-Natal.

According to the department’s social media, “The rehabilitation of P284 will impact the lives of the community as well as create mobility with uninterrupted access to schools, churches, clinics, police stations, and taxi ranks.”

Further evidence suggests that in the other four tender processes, Nolan’s, Big Mac Plant and Civil and Zack’s Business Enterprise were strategically positioned to win contracts through questionable scoring methods.

The trio received points for “similar-scale projects”, “client references”, “key construction personnel”, “plant ownership”, “programme schedule” and “financial viability”.

However, the points granted for each category shifted dramatically between parallel tenders, suggesting they were tailored to secure specific outcomes.

Although the tender processes for this set of contracts ran within the same time frame, points awarded in the same categories varied depending on the tender and which company was awarded the contract.

For instance, Nolan’s scored eight out of 20 points for “key construction personnel” in the D1911 process. but 15 out of 20 for P284, helping Nolan’s receive 80 out of 100 points for P284 compared to just 38 out of 100 for D1911 — a much smaller and presumably less demanding project.

Nolan Govender, the director of Nolan’s Earthworks, told amaBhungane he was unaware of the department’s original internal price estimate but said it “will not necessarily reflect the actual cost of designing and constructing the road”.

He referred other questions regarding the points scored to the IDT.

Zack’s Business Enterprise also benefited from erratic scoring.

The IDT awarded the company a R16-million contract for roads D826, D657 and P528. The company does not have a website and, according to the Treasury’s central supplier database, operates in furniture manufacturing and security services.

In other bids, Zack’s was awarded zero out of 20 points for “plant ownership” and zero for “financial viability”, but in the tender process it won, Zack’s scored 20 out of 20 points for “plant ownership” and five out of 10 points for “financial viability”, somehow gaining an asphalt plant and financial stability in the same timeframe.

Zacharia Sekgoka, the director of Zack’s Business Enterprise, did not respond to amaBhungane's request for comment except to insist that the company does own an asphalt plant. He did not divulge where.

Zack's Business Enterprise. (Photo: Google)

Big Mac Plant and Civils benefited from similarly erratic evaluations by the IDT.

In the tender process for road D1911, which it won, it scored five out of 10 for “financial viability” but zero points in the same category for L2724, D1652 and D1664 (which another company, KKL IT Solutions, won). The five extra points were enough to shift the outcome in its favour.

The director of Big Mac, Marimuthu Munien, said he was unaware of any manipulation in the procurement process as bidders did not have access to this information. He added that it was an internal IDT process.

Pressure

The unexplained anomalies will add to the pressure building on the IDT, especially around Bulkeng, with the minister demanding answers and accountability around the oxygen tender, while there is alleged resistance from officials to cooperating with PwC.

In a letter dated 27 March 2025, Macpherson accused the IDT of causing an “unnecessary delay” in the investigation when it demanded that the department inform the NDoH of the investigation, pending which the IDT would not cooperate with PwC.

“Notwithstanding that no such communication was legally required for IDT to comply with its obligations to immediately and fully cooperate, DPWI sent correspondence to the DoH as requested by the IDT officials and received the DoH’s approval to proceed with the investigation.

“The IDT’s demand caused an unnecessary delay in this urgent and important investigation. The demand was and is unjustifiable and ought not to have been made,” Macpherson told the IDT.

He ordered the board to investigate the “lack of cooperation” from IDT officials and submit a report by 2 April to hold those officials accountable. He also ordered that the board ensure “the IDT fully cooperates with PwC and DPWI regarding the investigation”, including any requests for information. DM