The Mangaung African Cultural Festival (Macufe), hosted every year in Bloemfontein, Free State has been declared illegal.
This after the hosting of a series of events under the Macufe banner was brought to the high court by the aggrieved bidder, DS Consortium, which argued that the tender to host the annual cultural festival, awarded to C-Squared, was fraudulent.
The DS Consortium approached the high court to have the multimillion-rand tender between the preferred bidder and the provincial department of sports, arts and culture nullified.
The lawyer representing the aggrieved bidder, Joubert Zietsman, told the high court that the government cannot change the specifications of the tender after it was issued, pointing out that C-Squared did not have a letter of appointment to host the event.
Despite the argument presented by the lawyers representing the department insisting that there was no malice in awarding the tender to C-Squared, judge Phillip J. Loubser ruled in favour of DS Consortium, stating that he will provide the reasons for his decision on Thursday.
Loubser ruled: “Judgment by default is granted in favour of the applicant against the responded for the decision of the first respondent to award tender SCM/Macufe 01/22 to the second respondent is hereby reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside.”
The judgment also states that any service level agreement concluded between the MEC of sports, arts and culture, Limakatso Mahasa, and her department with C-Squared relating to the impugned decision is struck down in accordance with section 8 of the Promotion of Administrative of Justice Act 3 of 2000.
Loubser ordered Mahasa, the department and C-Squared to jointly pay the costs of the application.
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