DUT officials appoint 'unqualified' company to run R400m project

Firm admits it was 'given lucrative' job on a platter

- By Nkululeko Ncana

A scandal is brewing at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), where officials are alleged to have unlawfully appointed a consultant whose fees ballooned by a whopping 27000% over a mere three-year period after being handed a R400-million construction project to complete without tender.

Information seen by Sunday World shows that BorCon, a company owned by Brad Boertjie, was paid R278250 after being appointed by DUT as a consultant in May 2023 as a dispute resolution practitioner on the university's groundbreaking R400-million construction project.

In a stunning admission early this week, Boertjie told Sunday World that he was literally handed an eye-watering R75.8-million contract to finish the project without having to go through a bidding process as required by the law. He also lacks the qualifications to do the work.

Boertjie said he was asked to take over the project after DUT officials terminated the contracts of Temi Construction and engineering consultants Vuvamu, which had won the open tender to start building groundbreaking infrastructure at two campuses in 2019.