KEY POINTS
- Judge Mossop required Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to bear all expenses of the legal conflict between the parties.
- Through their appeal Nombela Investments obtained a successful verdict in a legality review of a tender procedure.
- Ezemvelo faced court rejection because its review process was too slow and improperly administered a tender project.
Nombela Investments received a court victory from the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday when the court mandated Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to bear all the legal expenses stemming from a tender disagreement.
In December 2022 Judge N Radebe issued a decision through which Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife reviewed its 2017 tender award to Nombela Investments. Nombela then appealed the decision to the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
The judges comprised of Acting Judge Sibisi with Judge President Thoba Poyo-Dlwati together with Judge Robin Mossop SC who conducted the hearing on January 24, 2025.
Tender award and allegations of mismanagement
The management of Ezemvelo ran a competitive tender process to obtain five-year contracts for liquid petroleum gas supply with installation services at its resorts during 2017.
The acting supply chain manager Mr. Mnembe was aware that Nombela failed to attend the mandatory clarification session but Ezemvelo accepted their bid leading to the tender award. Evidence shows that Mnembe as a bid adjudication committee member authorized payments for fake transaction links related to Nombela.
Nombela accumulated R17 million or more before the two-year mark of the R21 million valued tender.
In October 2019 Ezemvelo started an internal audit and forensic investigation into the tender which resulted in the Nombela service agreement termination in February 2020 because of insufficient gas cylinder management that caused both employee injuries and facility harm.
The legal decision together with indications about misleading delays
The court denounced the initial judgment because it omitted examination of the time required to handle the situation.
According to Judge Mossop public bodies which initiate self-review need to include all delays in their assessment duties.
A delay in the decision needs valid reasons to keep the review process from interfering with the decision and preserve it as current.
The court recognized valid grounds for the appeal which led to the December 2022 order being reversed and imposed expense payment responsibility on Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
