A high court has found that Transnet's approach to identifying International Container Terminal Services Incorporated as the preferred bidder for the tender to manage the Durban Container Terminal Pier 2 was 'potentially flawed and ... unfair to the other bidders'.

Listen to this article 8 min Listen to this article 8 min The KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Durban has interdicted Transnet from proceeding with a deal that would have seen the Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Incorporated (Ictsi) taking over the management of Durban Container Terminal Pier 2 as a private sector partner to the public entity.

Judge Robin Mossop ruled on Wednesday that Transnet's approach to identifying Ictsi as the preferred bidder for the deal was "potentially flawed and prima facie unfair to the other bidders". He noted that allowances were made for Ictsi that were not offered to its competitors.

The case was brought to the high court on an urgent basis by APM Terminals, one of the losing bidders. It argued that Ictsi had failed to meet the solvency test required as part of the minimum financial criteria for proceeding past the first stage of the bidding process, referred to as the "request for qualifications" or RFQ stage.

Durban Container Terminal Pier 2 comprises three clusters of berths, with infrastructure that includes specialised equipment for handling containerised cargo.

Issue of solvency

Given the scale of the proposed project, bidders needed to provide evidence...