The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THOUSANDS of Bulawayo residents last week thronged the Large City Hall in response to a number of empowerment tenders that were flighted by the local authority.
The tenders were for the lease of various facilities in the city with potential lessees giving varying accounts on the process, with some failing to submit their bids by close of the tender at 10am on Monday citing technical glitches by the Bulawayo City Council including a power outage at the Revenue Hall.
Council corporate communications manager Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said the local authority had sold 2 024 tender forms of which 1 611 were filled and dropped in before closing time at 10am on Monday.
She said they were now seized with data capture and the sorting of bids accordingly.
“The City of Bulawayo issued an advert on the Tender for lease for various facilities on 3 October 2021 and the same advert was also advertised on 7 October 2021. The response to the call was indeed unprecedented with a total of 2 024 tender forms sold by close of tender while on Friday, 22 October numbers shot to 439 from an average of 100 per day.
“The figures for Monday, 25 October were not dis-aggregated as the officers had to rush for tender opening but the total for the day was 155. Our teams were prepared to attend to all clients during the advertising period and also prepared accordingly for the opening of the tenders, as the daily statistics tables had prepared us in advance of the expected numbers,” said Mrs Mpofu.
In terms of figures, the council spokesperson said council has received 493 bids for commercial stands, 179 for town houses, 161 for Thorngrove leased stands, 156 for leased shops, 127 for service industry bays (leased), 125 for sports clubs, 119 for local authority site, 116 for service industry site (purchase) and 97 for tuckshops.
The local authority also received 80 bids for caravan sites, 77 for factory shells, 76 for fresh farm produce wholesale markets, 73 for the fuel filling station, 48 for Ascot Race Course sites, 44 for a hospital/clinic site, 29 for crèches and 24 for light service industry (purchase).
Mrs Mpofu said council endured a power outage for 30 minutes, which affected the printing of tender forms for some categories which had run out.
“The City of Bulawayo tried as much as possible to assist those who had come for tender forms and also to process payments of the forms at the time. At 10am, the close time of tenders, the Chamber Secretary, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou announced that because of the overwhelming response, the boxes would be opened at the Large City Hall and tenderers were led to the venue.
“The opening of the tenders were led by the city valuer and estates officer, Mr Thabani Ncube, he acknowledged the challenges of electricity outage which resulted in some failing to get tender forms,” she said.
Regarding to calls from some sectors to extend the deadline to cater for those that failed to submit their bids, Mrs Mpofu said the city’s Legal Department and Procurement Unit had noted that it could actually cause more harm than good as many tenderers had already gathered to witness the opening.
“Prospective bidders were given enough time to prepare their documents in preparation for submission. Any request for an extension of the bidding period should have been received at least seven days before closing and it must have come from at least two thirds of the bidders. The decision to accept or to reject lies with the procuring entity,” she said.
However, the process received mixed reactions from the public with some claiming that because of the electricity outage the local authority should have considered extending the deadline.
