By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Bloemfotein High Court has set aside the Macufe tender, declaring it unlawful after after C-Squared Consumer Connectedness won the R16.8m contract to organise this year’s event.
The festival is a flagship programme of the Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation.
After a Covid-enforced hiatus, the Mangaung African Cultural Festival (Macufe) went ahead on 2 October 2022 after judgement was reserved.
An aggrieved bidder brought the interdict against Macufe 2022 after the company C-Squared Consumer Connectedness was awarded the tender for the festival, saying it was an irregular appointment.
In court papers submitted before Judge Phillip Loubser in the Bloemfontein High Court, Mosa Likobo of DS Consortium alleges that non-compliance and material administrative irregularities occurred in the bidding process and awarding of the tender.
Likobo said in papers that “in awarding the tender the department deviated from the tender specifications which resulted in C-Squared gaining an unfair competitive advantage to the detriment of other bidders… The department skewed the entire bidding process to ensure that the tender was awarded to C-Squared.”
Likobo said the department had:
- Published the call for bids at a late stage — the end of July to the beginning of August — rather than the usual April or May publication;
- Changed the venues of where the Macufe event was to be held giving C-squared an unfair advantage; and
- Required bidders to price their bids on the basis that the event management services were required at multiple venues spread across Bloemfontein without making this known to all bidders.
Likobo is one of the eight unsuccessful bidders.
This is not the first time C-squared has made headlines for the wrong reasons. In 2018, it was paid at least R47-million in 2017 for the festival — without the Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation benefiting from money collected at the gates or from sponsors.
The Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation has denied the allegations that the tender was awarded to C-Squared without following the necessary procedures.
The Macufe festival runs over 10 days and showcases African arts, culture and various sporting disciplines with tickets for the events ranging from R100 to R350.