RFI: regulatory data hub for digital sawem market monitoring, surveillance and regulatory business intelligence (5 years)

Closing date: 11 November 2026 at 11:00

Non-compulsory virtual briefing session:

• Date: 23 October 2026
• Time: 10:00
• Venue: MS Teams
• Registration: email request to [email protected] by 09:00 on 23 October 2026
• Note: bidders who arrive after the briefing has ended will not be allowed to submit their bids.

Clarification deadline: 26 October 2026 at 12:00 (written email to [email protected])

Reply to clarifications: 27 October 2026

Enquiries (briefing and clarifications):

• Email: [email protected]

General SCM enquiries:

• Email: [email protected]

Invoices:

• Email: [email protected]

Submission address:

NERSA, Kulawula House

526 Madiba Street

Arcadia

Pretoria

Submission method: physical delivery of one original bid document plus one memory stick (USB) containing a duplicate of the original with all attachments. The original must be completed and signed in ink; the USB must be sealed in a closed envelope. Failure to submit the original plus USB, or submitting a blank USB, results in automatic disqualification.

Address: NERSA, Kulawula House, 526 Madiba Street, Arcadia, Pretoria. Bidders must sign a tender register at reception when dropping off bids.

Envelope: sealed, endorsed with bid number NERSA-2627-ELR-MMSP-BID011, closing date and time (Wednesday, 11 November 2026 at 11:00), and the bidder's name and address. Unsealed envelopes may be disqualified.

Format: bids must be in PDF format, bound. Do not retype or convert the bid document to Word; complete it in ink.

Late bids: any bid arriving after 11:00 (even one second) will not be considered and will be returned unopened. The tender box is locked at exactly 11:00. Official Telkom time (dial 1026) is used.

Returnable documents (all must be completed, signed and returned):

• Invitation to Bid (SBD 1): bidder and contact details, signed as cover page.
• Bidder's Disclosure (SBD 4): discloses any director/shareholder employed by the state or connected to NERSA.
• Preference Points Claim Form (SBD 6.1): claims B-BBEE points under the 80/20 system.
• B-BBEE Certificate or Sworn Affidavit for EMEs: evidence of B-BBEE status.
• SARS Tax Compliance Status Pin Letter or printed TCS.
• CSD registration summary report or CSD number on first page of SCM forms.
• Proof of Microsoft Solutions Accredited Partner (mandatory).
• Technical Proposal and Project Plan: demonstrating capability for SharePoint redevelopment, enhancement, maintenance and support.
• CVs for Account Manager (Table 1) and Project Manager (Table 2).
• Table 3: Experience of the service provider in similar services.
• Table 4: Pricing Schedule/Financial Proposal (submitted separately in a sealed envelope).
• Labour Legislative Requirements (CIPC).
• Special Conditions of Bid and Contract (duly completed and signed).
• Reference check letters.
• Contract Form (Rendering of Services Parts 1 & 2): signed in duplicate.

Disqualification risks:

• Any returnable form omitted or unsigned.
• Bids with deviations from requirements/conditions.
• Bids qualified by the bidder's own terms and conditions (must be withdrawn/waived when called upon).
• Failure to submit proof of CSD registration.
• Submitting a blank memory stick or missing attachments on the USB.

Evaluation process: three stages.

Stage 1: Presentation/Demonstration (minimum score 65/100 to proceed).

• Only bidders who respond to this RFI are invited to demonstrate their current solution.
• Bidders must first meet at least 60% of the Annexure 1 checklist (6 of 10 service requirements) to be invited to present.
• Presentation scored out of 100 points:
• Data Extraction: 20 points
• Transformation and Load: 20 points
• Central Data Hub with core datasets: 20 points
• Data Analytics: 10 points
• Monitoring and surveillance: 10 points
• Security: 10 points
• Integration with other organisational applications: 10 points
• Bidders scoring less than 65% (65/100) are non-responsive and not invited to Stage 2.

Stage 2: Request for Proposals (RFP).

• Only bidders who pass Stage 1 receive the RFP and pricing schedule.

Stage 3: Price and Specific Goals (80/20 preference point system).

• Price: maximum 80 points.
• Specific goals: maximum 20 points (Black Owned: 10 points; Black Woman Owned: 10 points), evidenced by valid B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit.
• Total: 100 points. Highest total points wins.

Additional evaluation notes:

• Bids are first evaluated on selection criteria (100 points); minimum qualifying score is 60/100.
• NERSA may invite bidders for presentations; those scoring at least 65% on selection criteria, or ranked first to third, may be required to present.
• NERSA reserves the right to negotiate with one or more bidders and is not obliged to accept the lowest price.
• The Bid Adjudication Committee makes the final award; it may choose a lower-scoring bid on justifiable grounds or make no award.

Scope: Develop, implement, maintain and support a regulatory data hub for digital SAWEM market monitoring and surveillance, integrated data-driven regulatory decision making and business intelligence, for a period of five (5) years.

The solution must include:

• Data Extraction: from multiple sources including SAWEM trading platform, Market Operator, System Operator, settlement systems, prudential and collateral systems, metering systems, balancing engines, transmission/network constraint systems, outage and availability systems, transparency publication platform, participant reporting channels, and manual uploads.
• Transformation and Load: ingest and store trading data, fundamental/operational data, network and access data, settlement and prudential data, transparency and disclosure data, control and audit data.
• Central Market Database: integrate transactional and operational data from SAWEM, System Operator data, participant registration data, settlement data, access and wheeling data, on an ongoing basis.
• Surveillance Dashboard: real-time and historical visibility, rules- and anomaly-based detection, correlation analysis, alert scoring.
• Enforcement Capability: case workflow, event replay, evidence bundles.
• Reporting Capability: generate reports for governance and oversight, including board-level dashboards with KPIs and KRIs, trends, and drill-down capability.
• Security: cloud-based solution must meet requirements including physical and environmental security, business continuity, network security, data encryption, access control, two-factor authentication, protection against man-in-the-middle attacks, adherence to NERSA Cloud Computing Guidelines (Annexure 2), and full audit logging.

Commitment period: 60 months from signing the Memorandum of Agreement with NERSA. No work may commence before a written agreement is concluded.

Bidders must provide:

• CV of the Account Manager (Table 1) demonstrating experience and responsibilities for managing the NERSA account.
• CV of the Project Manager (Table 2) demonstrating experience for managing the NERSA intranet project.
• Table 3: Experience of the service provider in similar services, highlighting the company's track record of similar projects in the provision of enhancement, maintenance and support of SharePoint.
• Reference check letters.
• A technical proposal and project plan demonstrating capability for the redevelopment, enhancement of the new SharePoint environment including maintenance and support.

Stage 3 requires indicative pricing for each service on the bidder's letterhead. This pricing is not used for evaluation purposes. All monetary amounts must be in South African Rand and inclusive of VAT for registered vendors. The pricing schedule must reference the scope of work in the Terms of Reference, and prices must be in line with the Guide on Hourly Rates. The pricing schedule/financial proposal is submitted separately in a sealed envelope.

Pricing format: indicative pricing for each service on the bidder's letterhead. This pricing is not used for evaluation purposes.

Currency: all amounts in South African Rand, inclusive of VAT for registered vendors.

Payment terms: NERSA will pay the contractor fees set out in the final contract according to the table of deliverables. No additional amounts will be payable.

Invoicing: monthly, subject to detailed invoices and verification by NERSA. Invoices must be accompanied by supporting source documents and an original tax invoice complying with section 20 of the VAT Act. Invoices to be sent to [email protected].

Payment: by bank transfer into a South African bank account, normally 30 days after receipt of an acceptable, original, valid tax invoice. Banking details must be submitted as soon as the bid is awarded.

No bid security, bond, or guarantee requirements are stated.

Mandatory requirements:

• CSD registration: must be registered on the National Treasury Central Supplier Database (CSD) prior to submitting the bid. Proof of CSD registration summary report or CSD number on the first page of SCM forms is required. Failure to provide this invalidates the bid. International suppliers must confirm CSD registration or provide country of incorporation and company registration details.
• SARS Tax Compliance Status Pin Letter or printed TCS: must be submitted to enable NERSA to view the taxpayer's profile and tax status.
• B-BBEE: valid B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit for EMEs from a SANAS-accredited verification agency. For consortia/joint ventures, a consolidated B-BBEE certificate for unincorporated entities. Preference Points Claim Form must be completed to claim points.
• Microsoft Solutions Accredited Partner: proof is a mandatory requirement.
• Labour Legislative Requirements (CIPC): must be submitted.
• Special Conditions of Bid and Contract: must be accepted.
• General Conditions of Contract (GCC): the bid is subject to the GCC; bidders must not qualify their bids with own terms and conditions.

B-BBEE specific goals (Stage 3):

• Black Owned: 10 points (evidence: valid B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit)
• Black Woman Owned: 10 points (evidence: valid B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit)

The proposed cloud-based solution must cater for physical and environmental security, business continuity management and incident response, network inventory and configuration management, data encryption, access control, monitoring and logging, network security and monitoring, identity and access management, legislative and regulatory framework (POPIA, PAIA etc.), two-factor authentication, protection of data in transit against man-in-the-middle attacks, adherence to NERSA approved Cloud Computing Guidelines (Annexure 2), and full audit logging.

The contract will be concluded only when reduced to writing in a formal contract and Service Level Agreement signed by the designated responsible persons. NERSA's designated person is the CEO or a written authorised delegate. The commitment period is 60 months from signing the Memorandum of Agreement. The bid is subject to the General Conditions of Contract (GCC). Bidders must not qualify their bids with their own terms and conditions; failure to withdraw or renounce such terms may invalidate the bid. NERSA has the right to negotiate with one or more bidders regarding terms and conditions, including price. NERSA is not obliged to accept the lowest bid. No work may commence before a written agreement is concluded.

Evaluation uses the 80/20 preferential point system. Price is allocated a maximum of 80 points; specific goals (Black Owned and Black Woman Owned) are allocated a maximum of 20 points (10 each). Bidders must achieve a minimum of 60% on the Annexure 1 checklist (6 of 10 service requirements) to be invited to the presentation/demonstration. The presentation/demonstration is scored out of 100 points, with a minimum of 65 points to proceed to Stage 2 (RFP). The evaluation is carried out in three stages: Stage 1 (Presentation/Demonstration), Stage 2 (RFP), and Stage 3 (Price and Specific Goals).