A bitter court battle over an estimated R40 million aviation security contract at Polokwane International Airport has cast a spotlight on Gateway Airports Authority Ltd’s (GAAL) procurement processes after the High Court in Pretoria halted the implementation of a re-advertised tender pending a judicial review.
Acting Judge Minnaar granted an interim interdict preventing GAAL from awarding or implementing the latest tender for aviation and critical infrastructure security services after security company Lebelelang Mahlatse Trading, trading as Lima Mike Security Services, alleged the airport authority repeatedly cancelled procurement processes to sidestep it despite being the highest-scoring bidder. The order will remain in force until the review application is finally determined.
GAAL is mandated by law to manage and develop the province’s public airport infrastructure. This is a practice across the country where the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) does not have jurisdiction. ACSA only owns and manages the country’s nine principal airports; the rest are owned and managed by municipalities, provincial governments, private entities or other public bodies such as GAAL.
The dispute began when the airport security contract was advertised three times within a two-year period.
According to Lima Mike’s founding papers, the first tender closed in December 2024 before being cancelled based on budget constraints. A second tender was then advertised, closed in February this year and, according to the company, was never lawfully concluded before GAAL advertised a third tender on 24 April for substantially the same three-year airport security contract.
Lima Mike contends the repeated cancellations breached constitutional procurement principles requiring public contracts to be awarded fairly, transparently and competitively.
The company wants the court to review and set aside both the cancellation of the second tender and the decision to advertise the third tender, while compelling GAAL to adjudicate the second tender instead.
Lima Mike is adamant that it should have been appointed after the first tender process where it emerged as the highest-scoring bidder. But the process was subsequently abandoned.
The company further alleges procurement requirements were later amended during the second tender process, including lowering the public liability insurance requirement from proof of an existing policy to either a policy or a letter of intent from an insurer. It argues the amendment favoured incumbent service provider KMT Security and Events Management.
In its answering affidavit, GAAL disputes almost every material. It acknowledges that Lima Mike achieved the highest score during the first tender evaluation but says its quoted price exceeded the available budget, leading the Bid Adjudication Committee to recommend cancellation.
In regard to the second tender, GAAL says Lima Mike was not the highest-scoring bidder. Instead, it says KMT achieved the highest score with 89 points before officials uncovered discrepancies between bid prices recorded in the bid opening register and the amounts contained in submitted tender documents. Those irregularities, GAAL says, fatally compromised the procurement process and justified cancelling the tender and advertising a fresh one.
The authority also accuses Lima Mike of improperly obtaining confidential internal procurement documents and placing them before court without explaining how they were acquired. It wants those documents struck from the court record.
KMT, cited as the 13th respondent, distances itself from the procurement decisions altogether.
Its director, Molata Freddy Mogale, says KMT was awarded the airport security contract in 2022 following a procurement process and later accepted written contract extensions issued by GAAL after the initial agreement expired.
The company insists it neither cancelled nor advertised any tenders; did not formulate procurement policy, evaluate bids or amend specifications; and merely continued rendering services under extensions offered by the airport authority. It argues it was simply the service provider and not the decision-maker.
Although Lima Mike largely accepts that KMT was not responsible for GAAL’s procurement decision, it says that its challenge is directed squarely at GAAL’s administrative conduct, contending KMT has become the beneficiary of a procurement process that repeatedly denied Lima Mike the benefit of what it describes as its highest-scoring bids.
It also maintains that KMT’s continued contract extensions were themselves unlawful because the original three-year agreement had expired without a fresh competitive procurement process.
Although the High Court has not ruled on the merits of the competing allegations, it found the matter sufficiently urgent to intervene.
Judge Minnaar ordered that GAAL may not award or implement the re-advertised tender pending the outcome of the review proceedings, preserving the status quo while the court determines whether the airport authority acted lawfully in repeatedly cancelling and re-advertising one of Limpopo’s most significant aviation security contracts.
- The High Court in Pretoria has halted GAAL from awarding a R40 million aviation security contract at Polokwane International Airport pending judicial review, following a legal challenge by Lima Mike Security Services.
- Lima Mike claims GAAL repeatedly cancelled tender processes despite it being the highest-scoring bidder, breaching fair procurement principles by readvertising the contract three times in two years.
- GAAL counters that Lima Mike's initial bid exceeded budget and that irregularities compromised the second tender, necessitating its cancellation and a fresh tender.
- Incumbent contractor KMT denies involvement in procurement decisions, stating it only extended its existing contract under GAAL’s authority without influencing tender processes.
- The court's interim interdict preserves the current status quo, preventing GAAL from implementing the latest tender until the legality of its procurement conduct is determined.
A bitter court battle over an estimated R40 million aviation security contract at Polokwane International Airport has cast a spotlight on Gateway Airports
GAAL is mandated by law to manage and develop the province’s public airport infrastructure.
Lima Mike contends the repeated cancellations breached constitutional procurement principles requiring public contracts to be awarded fairly, transparently and competitively.
Lima Mike is adamant that it should have been appointed after the first tender process where it emerged as the highest-scoring bidder. But the process was subsequently abandoned.
In its answering affidavit, GAAL disputes almost every material. It acknowledges that Lima Mike achieved the highest score during the first tender evaluation but says its quoted price exceeded the available budget, leading the Bid Adjudication Committee to recommend cancellation.
In regard to the second tender, GAAL says Lima Mike was not the highest-scoring bidder. Instead, it says KMT achieved the highest score with 89 points before officials uncovered discrepancies between bid prices recorded in the bid opening register and the amounts contained in submitted tender documents.
KMT, cited as the 13th respondent, distances itself from the procurement decisions altogether.
Its director, Molata Freddy Mogale, says KMT was awarded the airport security contract in 2022 following a procurement process and later accepted written contract extensions issued by GAAL after the initial agreement expired.
It also maintains that KMT’s continued contract extensions were themselves unlawful because the original three-year agreement had expired without a fresh competitive procurement process.
Judge Minnaar ordered that GAAL may not award or implement the re-advertised tender pending the outcome of the review proceedings, preserving the status quo while the court determines whether the airport authority acted lawfully in repeatedly cancelling and re-advertising one of Limpopo’s most significant aviation security contracts.
