Civil works, buildings, roads, bridges, water and public-infrastructure contracts issued by government bodies, agencies and private developers.
How they buy
South African public procurement is decentralised across national and provincial departments, municipalities and state-owned entities, with notices published on the National Treasury eTender portal and on individual entities' own sites. Municipal and utility procurement is a substantial share of the market.
Across the construction & infrastructure notices we currently hold for South Africa, the most common form is the request for proposal. Each has its own rules — see RFP, RFQ and EOI compared and tendering procedures explained.
What qualifies you
Suppliers must be registered on the Central Supplier Database, and tax compliance status is verified at award. Evaluation applies preference points under the preferential procurement framework alongside price, so B-BBEE status directly affects scoring. Mandatory returnable documents are strictly applied and omissions are a common cause of disqualification.
Construction and infrastructure is one of the largest tender categories worldwide, spanning roadworks, buildings, bridges, pipelines, electrification and turnkey EPC projects. Notices here usually specify eligibility criteria such as prior similar work, annual turnover and technical staff, along with earnest-money and performance-guarantee requirements. Read the bill of quantities and completion timeline carefully, and check whether the tender is item-rate, percentage-rate or lump-sum before pricing your bid.
Before committing effort, it is worth running a deliberate bid/no-bid decision and checking your submission against the responsiveness checklist.