SAPS appealing car spares ruling

"We have submitted our papers to court today," Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale said.

 

"We are appealing the judgment and we are going to argue our case in court."

 

He declined to provide the court papers to Sapa, or give further details of the appeal.

 

Makgale said police had not yet been given a court date.

 

 

Last week, The Star reported that the High Court in Johannesburg set aside a multi-million rand vehicle spares tender contract.

 

"The award of the tenders to ABE Midas and Pinnacle [Auto Parts] is declared invalid, reviewed and set aside," Judge Lotter Wepener was quoted as saying.

 

 

He ordered that Autozone take over immediately while the SAPS sorted out the tender.

 

The newspaper reported that Autozone had supplied the SAPS nationally with vehicle spares for the past 13 years and bid for the new two-year contract again, but lost to ABE and Pinnacle.

 

Pinnacle was to supply 56 SAPS garages in eight provinces, and ABE Midas the remaining 41 garages.

 

Wepener said Autozone should have won the contract as it had supplied SAPS for years without any indication of problems.

 

"The eagerness to, at all costs, allocate the tender to ill-equipped tenderers and not to the applicant [Autozone] is rather worrying," 

 

Wepener said, according to the newspaper.

He said the SAPS conduct "smacks of an agenda".

 

The cancellation of the contract left many police stations without vehicles.

 

Makgale on Friday could not provide Sapa with a figure on vehicle shortages.

 

"The number varies at any given time. For example, if I say 10,000 now, then tomorrow it could be 12,000. It changes all the time.

 

"We are working hard to reduce the time that each vehicle spends at the garage waiting to be serviced or repaired. The number of cars at the garage depends on the age of the car and the issue with the car."

 

The Mail & Guardian quoted Makgale as saying that 36 station clusters had been affected by vehicle shortages. He said 2346 vehicles had been booked into garages between July and August. He did not provide the newspaper with figures for September.

 

Makgale said garages managed to repair 6812 vehicles with parts they had in stock.