Sanral asks court to extend road maintenance contracts

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has approached the High Court in Pretoria to extend the contracts of 31 road maintenance companies as contract lapses on 30 November will leave parts of the national road network without maintenance and emergency services over the festive season.

The maintenance contractors perform essential functions like fixing potholes, route patrols, accident clean-ups, emergency response, litter collection, vegetation control and drainage maintenance.

Sanral asks court to extend road contracts

They also serve as first responders to incidents on national routes and play a critical role in clearing accident wreckage.

Sanral has warned the consequences of allowing the existing contracts to lapse before replacement contractors are appointed could be serious.

Acting CEO Lehlohonolo Memeza said in an affidavit that they need the existing contractors to remain in place from 1 December until 31 March, 2027, or until the replacement contractors take over.

She said the absence of these services would expose road users and Sanral to road safety, service delivery, infrastructe preservation and liability risks.

According to Memeza, the risks are particularly concerning during December and January, when the national road network experiences its busiest period, coinciding with the rainy season.

“The board recorded that, without an extension, routine road maintenance services will be interrupted. Those services are critical to maintaining the national road network, to road safety, to incident management and to Sanral’s performance commitments, which include providing reliable road infrastructure that enables the movement of people and goods.”

Contract lapses on 30 November

The application follows a 20 July court order forcing the agency to stop the existing contracts on 30 November, unless it returned to court and motivated for an extension.

Memeza said Sanral has made substantial progress in procuring replacement contractors but could not complete the process before the November deadline without compromising procurement safeguards.

The latest application is premised on Sanral’s move to overhaul its road maintenance procurement model in 2024 from appointing contractors through three-year contracts to a single national panel of 20 pre-qualified contractors, with maintenance work allocated on an as-and-when-required basis through requests for quotations.

The panel tender, advertised on 29 November, 2024, resulted in litigation after several companies challenged the procurement process.

BCB Solutions instituted review proceedings on 24 September, 2025, while Botle Ba Afrika Roads and six other companies launched a separate review application the following day.

The companies sought to have the panel tender reviewed and set aside, arguing that the procurement process should not proceed.

Companies sought to have panel tender reviewed and set aside

According to Memeza, Sanral subsequently undertook not to implement the panel tender pending the review proceedings.

To avoid disruption to road maintenance services, the agency extended the existing contractors’ appointments, covering the period from 1 December, 2025 to 31 May, 2026, with a further six-month extension until 30 November, 2026.

Sanral has approved five bulk extensions since September 2024 to ensure continuity of road maintenance services while the litigation and procurement processes were ongoing.

The 20 July, 2026 court order effectively brought the panel procurement process to an end and required Sanral to go out on fresh open tender process.

The court also allowed the incumbent contractors to continue working until 30 November, 2026, providing Sanral with an opportunity to return for further relief if it could demonstrate good cause.

Memeza said the application was not an attempt to perpetuate the existing contracts indefinitely but a temporary measure to prevent disruption ahead of a legally compliant procurement process.