According to informed sources.
The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has suspended its chief procurement officer – again.
Informed sources told Moneyweb that Khomotso Mhelembe and two general managers in the road agency’s procurement office who reported to her were placed on precautionary suspension by the Sanral board last Wednesay (29 April).
Sanral GM for communications and marketing Vusi Mona declined to confirm or deny the suspensions or comment on the reasons behind them.
Mona said this is in line with Sanral’s policy of not generally commenting on internal matters involving its employees in the media to maintain confidentiality and safeguard the interests of the entity and its employees.
Moneyweb has been unable to establish the identities of the two general managers placed on precautionary suspension.
Previous suspensions and internal processes
Sanral’s chief audit officer Zolisa Zwakala, who was previously placed on precautionary suspension when Mhelembe was first suspended, is not believed to have been suspended again.
Sanral previously confirmed that Mhelembe and Zwakala were placed on “precautionary suspension pending internal processes”, effective from 27 October 2025, but stressed at the time that the suspensions were “precautionary in nature and no adverse findings had been made against them [Mhelembe and Zwakala] pending such process”.
The roads agency later confirmed on 19 November 2025 that the suspensions had been lifted, but declined to provide reasons for the decision.
Moneyweb has also been reliably informed that Transport Minister Barbara Creecy recently wrote to Sanral expressing concern about the agency’s performance and its apparent failure to meet some targets set out in its annual performance plan.
These concerns are believed to relate to a significant decline in the number of tenders awarded by Sanral compared to past years, especially as the state of the country’s roads has been deteriorating.
The concerns also reportedly involve an increase in the number of tender awards cancelled, as well as challenges and underspending in Sanral’s road asset infrastructure management budget, which creates a risk that National Treasury will order the return of these unspent finances.
Concerns over ‘underspending’
This underspending amounted to R3.36 billion in Sanral’s 2024/25 financial year and R5.36 million in 2023/24.
Sanral has not yet released its annual financial results for the 2025/26 financial year, and it is therefore unknown if this underspending persisted.
However, National Treasury in February slashed Sanral’s budget for its 2026/27 financial year by about R8 billion.
Collen Msibi, the minister’s spokesperson, confirmed on Thursday that Creecy had recently written to Sanral, but indicated this formed part of the department’s normal quarterly correspondence with its entities regarding their annual performance plans.
Msibi said he is still awaiting a copy of the letter before commenting on its contents.
Moneyweb reported in November 2025 that informed sources had questioned the lifting of Mhelembe and Zwakala’s suspensions, claiming the decision was not taken by the same Sanral executive who had imposed them, suggesting that this was suspicious and irregular.
Sanral at the time declined to comment on the outcome of an investigation allegedly linked to Mhelembe and Zwakala’s suspensions.
Tender irregularities
Construction industry sources claimed the suspensions related to Mhelembe’s alleged interference in tender awards, particularly the suspended award of the R1.57 billion Masekwaspoort tender.
This tender was awarded to the Base Major Construction-China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) joint venture (JV) in November 2024.
It subsequently emerged in November 2025, through Sanral’s court papers in a challenge to the Masekwaspoort tender award, that the award of the contract to the Chinese JV was marred by a host of irregularities that collectively undermined the lawfulness, rationality and fairness of the procurement process.
Sanral board chair Themba Mhambi confirmed this in court papers and that, on 22 November 2024, an initial regional bid evaluation committee (RBEC) recommendation that the Base Major Construction-CSCEC JV be awarded the tender had “inexplicably” again been placed before the bid adjudication committee without the revised bid evaluation committee (BEC) recommendation, due diligence report, legal assurance report or draft audit report.
The revised BEC recommendation was that the tender should be awarded to Hillary Construction, the next-highest responsive bidder, because the Base Major-CSCEC JV had “failed to submit any past performance experience of its own and is therefore non-responsive”.
Ongoing court cases
Two court cases are still pending related to this tender award.
One was initiated by Hilary Construction, which is challenging the tender award and seeking to have it reviewed and set aside.
The other court application was lodged by Sanral, which is seeking an order to cancel the award so that the tender process for the project can be restarted afresh.
Hilary Construction is opposing Sanral’s application and is seeking an order that the tender be awarded to it as the next highest responsive bidder, arguing that it should have received the tender in line with the revised BEC recommendation.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.