Logistics giant Imperial’s stranglehold over the car rental market at South Africa’s airports is set to continue undisturbed after the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed Airports Company South Africa’s (Acsa’s) appeal against a Joburg high court ruling that found that excluding Imperial from its premises on empowerment grounds was unconstitutional.
Imperial‚ which operates the Europcar and Tempest carhire businesses, has operated at Acsa’s airports for more than 33 years.
The dispute between Acsa and Imperial started in September 2017 when the airports operator published a request for bids (RFB) in terms of which members of the public were invited
to submit bids for the hiring of 71 car rental kiosks and parking bays at the nine airports it operates.
The RFB indicated that each successful applicant would be granted car rental concessions for 10 years.
Imperial approached the Joburg high court to set aside the RFB on numerous grounds, including the requirement that bidders meet minimum ownership, supplier development and
management control requirements, failing which a bidder would be disqualified at stage one of the process.
Imperial also took issue with clause 4 of the RFB which stipulated B-BBEE preference and pricing. The clause stated that a maximum of 100 points would be allocated to a bid on the basis of 20 points for price (in respect of rental oered by the kiosk), 30 points for price (in respect of the rental offered for the parking bays) and 50 points for the bidder’s B-BBEE scorecard.
According to Imperial’s 2019 annual report, its BEE equity ownership is less than 25%.
The Joburg high court found that Acsa had failed to apply section 217 of the constitution and the framework legislation envisaged in that section – a decision that made the RFB null
and void.
The SCA has now endorsed the high court ruling.
“It is clear that Acsa’s preferential procurement policy as reflected in its RFB bears no relation to the requirements of section 217 of the constitution as well as the B-BBEE Act and
the PP Act, being the legislation enacted to fulfill the obligation imposed by section 217(3) of the constitution,” reads the SCA judgment.
“Acsa has also failed to show that all the qualification criteria embodied in the impugned provisions of the RFB are rationally connected to the purpose for which they were intended.”
Acsa said it was studying the judgment.
By Kabelo Khumalo
Imperial wins Acsa tender battle
