Civil Engineering Panel: Mine Water Ingress Control

The Council for Geoscience (CGS), a Schedule 3A public entity, is establishing a panel of professional civil engineering firms or service providers for a three-year period. The panel will supply civil engineering services for projects that reduce surface water entering abandoned underground gold mine workings in the Witwatersrand Mining Basin. The main objective is to design engineering solutions that cut the volume of surface water entering mine voids, and to recommend management options that reduce reliance on pumping and limit decant to the surface. The work responds to acid mine drainage and flooding linked to degraded historical mine canals, which have been damaged by illegal mining and no longer serve their original purpose.

Panel members will be engaged through brief request-for-quotation (RFQ) processes for individual projects, which will be identified over several financial years. Services follow ECSA normal services guidelines and cover six phases: project inception, concept and viability, design development, documentation and procurement, contract administration and procurement, and close-out. Bidders must have a valid ECSA registration certificate as a professional Civil Engineer or Civil Engineering Technologist for the proposed project lead. Evaluation has three gates: mandatory criteria, a functionality score with a minimum of 75 points, and administrative compliance. Functionality is scored on verifiable references for completed civil works projects valued at R2 million or more, CVs of the project civil engineer (with more than five years of experience scoring highest), and the number of surface water management projects managed by the proposed lead engineer. Preference points use an 80/20 or 90/10 system, and joint ventures and consortia are accepted with a signed agreement that sets out roles and percentage splits.

For eligible firms, the panel offers a repeatable pipeline of public-sector civil engineering work tied to a nationally significant environmental and water management challenge. Firms should note that the tender documents give inconsistent closing dates (1, 18 and 19 November 2026) and a non-compulsory briefing on 2 November 2026 that falls after one of the stated closing dates. Bidders should confirm the correct closing date and time with the contact persons before submitting. Bids must be placed in the tender box at 280 Pretoria Street, Silverton, Pretoria, in two sealed envelopes (technical and price), with a valid CSD registration, a tax compliance PIN and signed SBD forms.