Top ICT tenders: SAPO to replace national network

It’s a quiet week on National Treasury’s eTender Portal, with government departments focused on the delivery of the reworked 2025 Budget speech from finance minister Enoch Godongwana.

While several concessions were made to appease members of the Government of National Unity, further changes may yet need to be made before it gets the 50% plus one vote to be passed.

It is amid this subdued activity that the beleaguered South African Post Office (SAPO) takes the headline with its advert for managed network and telephony services.

The state-owned entity has been under business rescue since the Gauteng High Court granted government’s application in July 2023, effectively halting liquidation proceedings. In September 2024, the business rescue practitioners told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies that it had put moves to modernise SAPO’s hardware infrastructure and software on hold, pending additional funding of nearly R4 billion.

In its tender documentation, SAPO says it has identified a need for a managed network service providerto replace the existing infrastructure with a cost-effective, managed network solution that will address the company’s electronic communication requirements.

This will involve the replacement of the current managed data centre connectivity, local area network, WiFi, wide area network, last-mile connectivity, PABX and telephones with a managed network service.

According to the tender’s site schedule, the contract will cover 654 locations made up of 597 branches, 45 campuses, three transportable post offices, eight post points and one data centre.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The Office of the Valuer-General seeks a service provider to build, maintain and support a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solution. The organisation explains it has a combined assurance model framework and implementation plan in place to assist in driving, coordinating and reporting on its combined assurance activities. However, its assurance activities are currently carried out using manual processes.
• The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) invites bids for the supply, delivery and installation of 12 uninterruptible power supplies, 13 48-port power-over-ethernet switches, 47 wireless access points, training and cabling for the Limpopo Provincial Treasury. The equipment is essential for protecting equipment and providing connectivity, the agency says.

• SITA also wishes to procure the establishment of Veeam cloud service provider programme (VCSP) partnership and the deployment of related software solutions. The agency notes Veeam has various transacting and licensing models based on the use case. In the case of the government private cloud ecosystem, where SITA aims to deliver infrastructure-as-a-service, backup-as-a-service, disaster-recovery-as-a-service as part of the hosted IT service, the VCSP licensing model is required.

• The Border Management Authority (BMA) invites service providers to submit proposals for Huawei managed cloud-hosted infrastructure-as-a-service, disaster recovery-as-a-service, backup-as-a-service, security, support and maintenance. The BMA’s cloud hosting services contract expired on 28 February. This necessitates the BMA to acquire the hosting services in order to continue using the current cloud services for the next three years.

• eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality wishes to procure internal audit software, with MSCOA processes configuration, licensing, maintenance and support. The municipality’s audit and risk assurance services unit has traditionally followed manual audit processes, spending countless hours preparing work papers and audit reports along with associated documentation, it says. With increased workload, the department has identified significant challenges, such as audit inefficiencies, errors, unreliable reporting, redundant efforts, inflated costs and data inaccuracies.

• The KwaZulu-Natal metro also invites bids for HPe hardware maintenance and support for 36 months. eThekwini explains the systems delivery and security services business units within the eThekwini Municipality runs on HPe virtualised hardware technology and standalone hardware servers to maintain and support the business needs.

• Eskom is looking for an integrated development environment (IDE) development tool for software developers. The utility’s preferred IDE products are provided by a US-based organisation, which offers an ‘All Products’ package. This comprehensive subscription includes 10 IDEs, three extensions, two profilers and a collaborative development service, it says. Although the development team has a current size of 22 employees and over 15 vacant positions, the utility recommends acquiring 10 ‘All Products Pack’ packages for the first year since some employees, such as .NET developers, can leverage off tools that it currently has for Microsoft technologies.

• The National Gambling Board of South Africa is looking for suitable and qualified service providers to submit bids to provide hosted data centre and disaster recovery services. The requirements specify syndicated workstations with DR testing conducted once a year; hosting with managed replication of VMs going to a dedicated server; dedicated rack; Veeam image licences; guaranteed 99% up time; and a proven track record.

• The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa closes the issue, inviting service providers to express interest in assisting it with equipment certification in relation to electronic communications equipment, electronic communications facility and subscriber equipment. The regulator says it aims to appoint up to three qualified service providers to conduct these certifications.