About 80 Sanral tenders that are yet to close -- with a value of more than R11bn -- will be affected by the board's decision to withdraw a new preferential procurement policy, with the requirement to re-advertise the tenders.

The SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) has withdrawn its preferential procurement policy that faced court action from the construction industry because it heightened requirements for firms to have a favourable Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment profile to win tenders from the state-owned enterprise (SOE).

The board of Sanral announced on Tuesday that it had withdrawn the procurement policy, which it implemented in May, but has since been successfully challenged by the construction industry, saying that it wanted to avoid further legal action.

The board plans to consult the construction industry about reworking and finalising a new procurement policy. As an interim measure, Sanral will revert to an old policy to adjudicate new tenders relating to the expansion and maintenance of roads and key arteries across SA.

Sanral board chair Themba Mhambi said the legal challenges to the procurement policy had resulted in the SOE being "prevented from proceeding with the processing of close to 80 tenders worth billions of rands".

"The board of Sanral has adopted the decision to withdraw the new preferential procurement policy because of the negative impact these court challenges have, including the fact that we anticipate that the lengthy court processes will cause significant delays to the...