High Court throws out bidder for 'skipping' Tribunal

By overlooking the Public Procurement Tribunal, the court ruled that the company had bypassed the dispute-resolution processes mandated by the Public Procurement Act.

Handing down judgment on April 28, 2026, Justice Onkagetse Pusoentsi found that whilst the matter was inherently urgent because it involved a public procurement dispute, the court’s jurisdiction had been ousted by Section 113 of the Public Procurement Act, 2021. That provision requires a bidder to exhaust all internal dispute resolution mechanisms up to the Public Procurement Tribunal before approaching the courts.