The South African public-sector procurement process

An end-to-end walkthrough of how a government tender moves from demand identification to contract award — under the PFMA for national and provincial entities, and the MFMA for municipalities.

The five stages

  1. Demand management — the accounting officer identifies a need and approves funding. Tender specifications are drafted and signed off.
  2. Acquisition — the tender is advertised. Bidders submit, evaluation and adjudication happen, and an award is made.
  3. Logistics — goods / services are delivered. Payment follows invoice.
  4. Disposal — at the end of the contract, any assets are disposed of per policy.
  5. Risk / performance — every stage is audited annually by the Auditor-General.

Procurement thresholds

The method used depends on contract value:

  • Up to R2,000 — petty cash.
  • R2,000 – R30,000 — verbal or written quotation from one supplier on the CSD.
  • R30,000 – R200,000 (municipal) or up to R2,000,000 (national/provincial) — written quotations from at least three suppliers on the CSD.
  • Above the quotation threshold — open competitive bidding via public advertisement for a minimum of 21 working days.

The acquisition stage in detail

Open tenders follow this sequence:

  1. Advertisement on the eTender portal (etenders.gov.za), the government gazette, and usually the organ of state's own website.
  2. Briefing — an optional or compulsory site / clarification meeting, usually 5–7 working days after advertisement. Missing a compulsory briefing disqualifies you.
  3. Q&A period — written questions and addenda until about 5 working days before close.
  4. Closing at the advertised time. Late submissions are rejected unopened.
  5. Evaluation by the Bid Evaluation Committee — functionality first (if a threshold is set), then 80/20 or 90/10 price-and-preference.
  6. Adjudication by the Bid Adjudication Committee — verifies the BEC's recommendation and refers to the Accounting Officer.
  7. Award — the Accounting Officer signs off; the preferred bidder is notified in writing.
  8. Award publication — all awards above specified thresholds are published on eTender.
  9. Standstill period — some organs apply a cooling-off window during which losing bidders may object.

Key statutes

  • Constitution s217 — procurement must be fair, equitable, transparent, competitive, and cost-effective.
  • PFMA (Act 1 of 1999) — national and provincial entities.
  • MFMA (Act 56 of 2003) — municipalities and municipal entities.
  • PPPFA (Act 5 of 2000, regulations 2022) — preference-points framework.
  • B-BBEE Act (Act 53 of 2003, amendments 2013) — B-BBEE compliance.
Where to find tenders: the Central Supplier Database (csd.treasury.gov.za) is mandatory for all suppliers. eTender (etenders.gov.za) is the primary advertisement portal. TenderFlow aggregates from multiple published feeds and adds filtering and tracking.

Core acronyms

  • PFMA — Public Finance Management Act
  • MFMA — Municipal Finance Management Act
  • SCM — Supply Chain Management
  • CSD — Central Supplier Database
  • BEC — Bid Evaluation Committee
  • BAC — Bid Adjudication Committee

Tender method

The tender value decides the method. Above roughly R2m (national) or R200k (municipal), it's open advertising only.

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Related guides

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Supply chain management (SCM) is the end-to-end procurement process mandated by the PFMA (national/provincial) and MFMA (municipal) in South Africa. It covers demand, acquisition, logistics, disposal, risk, and performance management — with the acquisition stage being where tenders are advertised and awarded.

Low-value procurement (typically under R2m for national/provincial, under R200k for municipalities) is done via written quotations from at least three suppliers on the Central Supplier Database. Above those thresholds the item must go to open tender via public advertisement.

Every tender uses a two-stage evaluation. Stage one is functionality (if threshold is set) — bidders who fail functionality are disqualified. Stage two is the price and preference formula (80/20 or 90/10). The highest scoring bidder is the preferred bidder, subject to objective criteria checks.

The CSD is the single, consolidated national supplier database maintained by National Treasury. All suppliers doing business with any organ of state must register on csd.treasury.gov.za. Registration is free and verifies CIPC, SARS, and B-BBEE status automatically.

The accounting officer issues a written notice of award and a service-level agreement. The losing bidders can request a debrief within a set window and — if the grounds are procedural — can lodge an appeal with the Office of the Public Procurement Officer.

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