NewzDespite concerns about firefighting company Tefla Group’s apparent lack of skills and equipment, the Kishugu Group has reached an agreement with the group, which has been awarded a more than R1.8 billion Working on Fire contract, to keep key operations running. Kishugu Group, which has run the country’s largest veld fire-fighting programme for over two decades, but lost the bid to Tefla, said it reached an interim agreement on 31 July to ensure continuity during the transition. Tefla Group awarded Working on Fire contract According to a communique, which The Citizen has seen, Kishugu Aviation will continue providing aerial firefighting services, Kishugu Fleet Solutions will provide the ground fleet, Kishugu Training will continue with training, while Working on Fire, a Kishugu Group company, will retain the programme management under Tefla’s management of the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment contract.
“We are also working towards concluding a long-term agreement with Tefla to provide these services for the remainder of the department contract period, covering 1 September, through to 5 January 2028,” the memo stated. Kishugu also reassured the parties that this development had no impact on any of their existing contractual commitments with clients outside of the department’s contract and that all such agreements continue as normal. The department, however, said it was not aware of a subcontracting agreement between Tefla and Kishugu.
However, it did not identify Kishugu as a subcontractor or explain whether the current interim arrangement was contemplated when Tefla submitted its bid. AfriForum pursues procurement records Civil rights organisation AfriForum is pursuing access to procurement records to establish how the successful bidder was evaluated, with concerns that Tefla appeared to lack the specialist expertise, personnel, equipment and operational capacity to implement one of government’s most critical wildfire-fighting drives. According to the organisation, aerial firefighting and wildfire management require highly specialised technical expertise, aviation resources and operational infrastructure that, based on its assessment at the time, Tefla did not appear to possess.
So what exactly is going on with the massive R1.8 billion government contract for firefighting? It’s been with the same group for two decades but, suddenly, the renewal has gone to a newcomer that allegedly doesn’t have an aviation background, or the required people and equipment. The department of forestry, fisheries and the environment told us it was not aware that the new contract holder, the Tefla Group, had finalised an agreement to subcontract the work to someone else.
In South Africa, we all know that designated groups means the previously disadvantaged – although in many cases, there is very little trickle-down from the elite at the top, who actually win the business. In the case of this contract, the company which has been running the programme successfully up to now, Kishugu, has reached “an interim agreement” with Tefla to keep operations running. Not only that, Kishugu has told its shareholders it is working towards a similar arrangement for the entirety of the Tefla main contract, which runs until January 2028.
Kishugu won’t elaborate, despite a list of questions we sent them. We don’t blame them: shut up and take the money works well for many in this country. But, as the saying goes: if it waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, then maybe it is.
Summary from source