Dispute puts brakes on new WSU fleet

Nine months after Walter Sisulu University purchased a new fleet of vehicles for almost R10m, the cars still remain unused due to a contractual dispute.

WSU spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo said the vehicles were delivered by Falcolux Trading, the company that won the tender to procure the vehicles last year. However, the company allegedly did not meet tender specifications – a claim Falcolux has since denied.

Falcolux Trading managing director Masixole Mfingwana said WSU had changed the vehicle specifications after he had been appointed. This resulted in the price of the vehicles going up as the university now wanted more expensive cars than those originally specified.

Tukwayo said they had requested the purchase of 10 2017 model Toyota Corolla Esteems, eight 2017 GL models Toyota Quantums and a Hino Bus. The vehicles were valued at R9,962,635.50 in total.

Tukwayo said the vehicles had not been transferred into the institution’s name because they were still investigating the procurement and processes followed.

“WSU management took the decision to investigate the procurement process and preliminary results show that the procurement process was not followed with precision.

“This does not necessarily mean the transaction was fraudulent, but we are expecting a full report at the end of this month,” she said.

Tukwayo initially promised to send the Dispatch the tender specifications advert but later refused. She would also not say what the specifications were.

“The cars are still under the seller’s name. We have been engaging with the supplier for some months and we seem to be making progress and can expect to register the cars in the university’s name.

“The second issue with the supplier is that some of the cars that were delivered were not according to the specifications we required and this is something that we are in the process of resolving through our legal department,” she said.

However, Mfingwana dismissed this, saying WSU had changed the specifications after he had already been appointed.

“The initial bid document requested 10 Toyota Quest vehicles, eight Toyota Ses’fikile combis and a Hino 60-seater bus, but they changed the specs after they appointed me.” Mfingwana said they delivered, but the prices of the vehicles had changed.

“The cars are not registered in my name. I am still waiting for the institution to pay the difference before the vehicles can be transferred into their name,” he said.

Mfingwana said the vehicles had been bought from a Toyota dealership in Durban while the bus and some of the minubuses were bought in Johannesburg.

He said this was after local dealers did not have stock in December last year when he was “pressured to deliver before schools closed last year”.

The Daily Dispatch this week saw 10 new white Toyota Esteems covered in dust at the Heritage campus in Cambridge Street in East London.

Five could be seen parked along the pavement, while another five were parked in the institutions’ underground parking.