Frequently Asked Questions — Cube Satellite Bus Design & Verification Testing for Optical Payload Integration – RFP in Gauteng

Question 1

What are the submission requirements for this tender (Ref: )?

Accepted Answer

The CSIR reserves the right to: 13.1 Extend the closing date of this RFP; 13.2 Correct any mistakes before closing date and time of the tender that may have been in the Bid documents or occurred at any stage of the tender process; 13.3 Verify any information contained in the bidder’s submission; 13.4 Request documentary proof regarding the bidder’s submission; 13.5 Carry out site inspections, product evaluations or explanatory meetings in order to verify the nature and quality of the product/service offered by the bidder(s) or verify any information whether before or after the adjudication of this RFP; 13.6 Award this tender to a bidder that did not score the highest total number of points, only in accordance with Section 2(1)(f) of the PPPFA (Act ); 13.7 Request audited financial statements or other documents for the purpose of a due diligence exercise to determine if the bidder will be able to execute the contract; 13.8 Award this RFP as a whole or in part; 13.9 Award this RFP to multiple bidders; 13.10 Cancel and/or terminate the tender process at any stage, including after the Closing Date and/or after presentations have been made, and/or after tenders have been evaluated and/or after the preferred bidder(s) have been notified of their status as such; Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation 13.11 Post tender negotiate on any elements on the bid, including but not limited to technical, transformation, price, and contractual terms and conditions.; 13.12 Not to award a contract to a bidder who is associated with a security breach that materially adversely affects other entities or if any directors or officers of a bidder are formally charged of fraudulent or illegal conduct which, would harm the CSIR’s reputation by its continued association with the bidder. 14 CONFLICT OF INTEREST, CORRUPTION AND FRAUD 14.1 The CSIR reserves its right to disqualify any bidder who either itself or any of whose members (save for such members who hold a minority interest in the bidder through shares listed on any recognised stock exchange), indirect members (being any person or entity who indirectly holds at least a 15% interest in the bidder other than in the context of shares listed on a recognised stock exchange), directors or members of senior management, whether in respect of CSIR or any other government organ or entity and whether from the Republic of South Africa or otherwise ("Government Entity") a. engages in any collusive tendering, anti-competitive conduct, or any other similar conduct, including but not limited to any collusion with any other bidder in respect of the subject matter of this bid; b. seeks any assistance, other than assistance officially provided by a Government Entity, from any employee, advisor or other representative of a Government Entity in order to obtain any unlawful advantage in relation to procurement or services provided or to be provided to a Government Entity; c. makes or offers any gift, gratuity, anything of any value or other inducement, to any Government Entity's officers, directors, employees, advisors or other representatives in order to obtain any unlawful advantage in relation to procurement or services provided or to be provided to a Government Entity; d. accepts anything of value or an inducement that would or may provide financial gain, advantage or benefit in relation to procurement or services provided or to be provided to a Government Entity; Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation e. pays or agrees to pay to any person any fee, commission, percentage, brokerage fee, gift or any other consideration, that is contingent upon or results from, the award of any tender, contract, right or entitlement which is in any way related to procurement or the rendering of any services to a Government Entity; f. has in the past engaged in any matter referred to above; or g. has been found guilty in a court of law on charges of fraud and/or forgery, regardless of whether or not a prison term was imposed and despite such bidder, member or director’s name not specifically appearing on the List of Tender Defaulters kept at National Treasury. 15 MISREPRESENTATION DURING THE LIFECYCLE OF THE CONTRACT 15.1 The bidder should note that the terms of its Tender will be incorporated in the proposed contract by reference and that the CSIR relies upon the bidder’s Tender as a material representation in making an award to a successful bidder and in concluding an agreement with the bidder. 15.2 It follows therefore that misrepresentations in a Tender may give rise to service termination and a claim by the CSIR against the bidder notwithstanding the conclusion of the Service Level Agreement between the CSIR and the bidder for the provision of the Service in question. In the event of a conflict between the bidder’s proposal and the Service Level Agreement concluded between the parties, the Service Level Agreement will p…

Question 2

How will bids be evaluated?

Accepted Answer

The CSIR has set minimum standards that a bidder needs to meet in order to be evaluated and selected as a successful bidder. The minimum standards consist of the following: Price and Preference Elimination Criteria Technical Evaluation Criteria Points Evaluation Objective Criteria (Phase 1) (Phase 2) (Phase 3) Only bidders that comply with Bidder(s) are required to achieve Bidder(s) will be The CSIR reserves ALL the criteria set on a predetermined minimum evaluated out of 100 the right to award paragraph 27.1 on Phase 1 threshold on each of the individual points i.e. 80 points this tender to a below will proceed to criteria, and a predetermined for Price and 20 bidder that did not Technical/Functional minimum threshold on 100 points points for Preference score the highest Evaluation (Phase 2). overall. Only bidder (s) who met Points. total number of and/or exceeded the minimum points in accordance threshold points on Phase 2 with Section (2) (1) below will proceed to Price and (f) of the PPPFA (Act Preference Points Evaluation. ). (Phase 3) 27.1 Elimination Criteria (Phase 1) Proposals will be eliminated under the following conditions: • Bidder that submitted late bids will not be considered. • Bidder that submitted to the incorrect location or email address will not be considered (Only electronic submission to tender@csir.co.za would be considered). Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation • Bidder that is listed on the NT database of restricted suppliers will not be considered. • Bidder that is registered on the NT Register of Tender Defaulters will not be considered. • Bidder that did not submit mandatory returnable documents as listed on Annexure E: Proposal Form and List of Returnable Documents (Mandatory Returnable Documents Table). 27.2 Technical Evaluation Criteria (Phase 2) The evaluation of the functional / technical detail of the proposal will be based on the following criteria: No ELEMENT WEIGHT 1 Satellite Bus System Design Capability and Competency 15 2 Satellite Bus System Design Verification, Integration and Testing (AIT) 15 with the payload in a Flat-Sat Test setup. 3 Detailed technical specifications of satellite bus subsystems that 60 support payload requirements 4 Letter from contactable client references for similar products and 10 services provided to other clients TOTAL (%) 100 Proposals with functionality / technical points that do not achieve the predetermined minimum threshold of 50% on each of the individual criteria and a minimum overall percentage of 70% will be eliminated from further evaluation on Price and Preference Points Evaluation. Refer to Annexure C (Technical Evaluation Matrix/Rubrics) for the scoring ranges/rubrics that will be used to evaluate functionality. 27.3 Price and Preference Points Evaluation (Phase 3) Only Bidders that have met meet minimum thresholds on Technical/functional Evaluation will be evaluated for price and preference points. Price and Preference Points will be evaluated as per Annexure G: Preference Points Award Form. Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation 28 OBJECTIVE CRITERIA The CSIR reserves the right to award this tender to a bidder that did not score the highest total number of points in accordance with Section (2) (1) (f) of the PPPFA (Act )”, under the following conditions: • The directors, shareholders or officers of the bidder must not be formally charged of fraudulent or illegal conduct which could harm the CSIR’s reputation by associating with the bidder. 29 NATIONAL TREASURY CENTRAL SUPPLIER DATABASE (CSD) REGISTRATION Respondents are required to self-register on National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database (CSD) which has been established to centrally administer supplier information for all organs of state and facilitate the verification of certain key supplier information. Business may not be awarded to a Respondent who has failed to register on the CSD. Only foreign suppliers with no local registered entity need not register on the CSD. In order to enable the CSIR to verify information on the CSD, Respondents are required to provide the unique registration reference number. Before any negotiations will start with the winning bidder it will be required from the winning bidder to: • be registered on National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database (CSD). Registrations can be completed online at: www.csd.gov.za; • provide the CSIR of their CSD registration number. Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation Annexure A Standard Bidding Document (SBD) 1 PART A: INVITATION TO BID YOU ARE HEREBY INVITED TO BID FOR REQUIREMENTS OF THE CSIR CLOSING CLOSING BID NUMBER: RFP No 3724.1/09/10/2026 09 October 2026 16:30 DATE: TIME: The provision of the development and supply of Cube Satellite Bus Design and Verification Testing to

Question 3

What are the technical specifications?

Accepted Answer

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is one of the leading scientific research and technology development organisations in Africa. In partnership with national and international research and technology institutions, the CSIR undertakes directed and multidisciplinary research and technology innovation that contributes to the improvement of the quality of life of South Africans. The CSIR’s main site is in Pretoria while it is represented in other provinces of South Africa through regional offices. 2 SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS 2.1 All proposals are to be submitted electronically to tender@csir.co.za. No late proposals will be accepted. 2.2 All proposals will only be considered if received by the CSIR before the closing date and time (as indicated on the cover page). The CSIR business hours are between 08h00 and 16h30. 2.3 All proposal submissions are to be clearly subject-referenced with the RFP number and RFP Description. Proposals must consist of two parts, each of which must be sent in two separate emails with the following subject: PART 1: Technical Proposal (Please indicate the RFP Number on each File/folder) PART 2: Pricing Proposal, Specific Goals claim documentation: RFP No.: (Please indicated the RFP Number on each File/folder) 2.4 Proposals submitted must be signed by a person or persons duly authorised. 2.5 Proposals submitted at incorrect location and/or address, will not be accepted for considerations and where practicable, will be returned unopened to the Bidder(s). Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation 2.6 Proposals received after the closing date and time, at the address indicated in the bid documents, will not be accepted for consideration and where practicable, will be returned unopened to the Bidder(s). 2.7 All dates and times in this bid are South African standard time. 2.8 Any time or date in this bid is subject to change at the CSIR’s discretion. The establishment of a time or date in this bid does not create an obligation on the part of the CSIR to take any action or create any right in any way for any bidder to demand that any action be taken on the date established. The bidder accepts that, if the CSIR extends the deadline for bid submission (the Closing Date) for any reason, the requirements of this bid otherwise apply equally to the extended deadline. 2.9 Documents submitted via cloud solutions such as: WeTransfer, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. will not be considered. 2.10 The naming / labelling syntax of files or documents must be short and simple. 2.11 The CSIR will award the contract to qualified bidder(s)’ whose proposal is determined to be the most advantageous to the CSIR, taking into consideration the technical (functional) solution, price, specific goals and objective criteria. 3 COUNTER CONDITIONS Bidders’ attention is drawn to the fact that amendments to any of the RFP Conditions or setting of counter conditions by Bidders or qualifying any RFP Conditions will result in the invalidation of such bids. 4 FRONTING 4.1 Government supports the spirit of broad based black economic empowerment and recognizes that real empowerment can only be achieved through individuals and businesses conducting themselves in accordance with the Constitution and in an honest, fair, equitable, transparent and legally compliant manner. Against this background the Government condemn any form of fronting. Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation 4.2 The Government, in ensuring that Bidders conduct themselves in an honest manner will, as part of the RFP evaluation processes, conduct or initiate the necessary enquiries/investigations to determine the accuracy of the representation made in bid documents. Should any of the fronting indicators as contained in the Guidelines on Complex Structures and Transactions and Fronting, issued by the Department of Trade and Industry, be established during such enquiry / investigation, the onus will be on the Bidder / contractor to prove that fronting does not exist. Failure to do so within a period of 14 days from date of notification may invalidate the bid / contract and may also result in the restriction of the Bidder /contractor to conduct business with the public sector for a period not exceeding ten years, in addition to any other remedies the CSIR may have against the Bidder / contractor concerned. 5 PRICING PROPOSAL 5.1 Pricing must be provided in South African Rand (including all applicable taxes less all unconditional discounts). 5.2 Prices that are subject to escalation and exchange rate fluctuations are to be clearly indicated, with the currency and ROE used in the quotation must be clearly indicated. 5.3 Price should include additional cost elements such as travel cost, freight, insurance until acceptance, duty where applicable, etc. 5.4 Payment will be according to the CSIR Payment Terms and Conditions. 5.5 Please provide a detail pricing using a Pr…

Question 4

What financial requirements apply to bidders?

Accepted Answer

Payment Terms: Payment Terms and Conditions. 5.5 Please provide a detail pricing using a Pricing Schedule/Bill of Quantities outlined under Annexure D. Pricing must strictly be in accordance with the Pricing Schedule. 6 APPOINTMENT OF SERVICE PROVIDER 6.1 The contract will be awarded to the bidder who scores the highest total number of points during the evaluation proc

Question 5

What compliance and legal requirements must bidders meet?

Accepted Answer

Minimum functionality/qualifying score: 50% TAX COMPLIANCE 12 Tax Compliance Status (TCS) or CSD Report of each joint venture partner TAX COMPLIANCE TAX COMPLIANCE SYSTEM CENTRAL TAX COMPLIANCE STATUS SYSTEM PIN CODE FROM THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE (SARS) AND IF TAX COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS TAX COMPLIANCE STATUS (TCS) PIN MAY BE MADE VIA E-FILING THROUGH THE SARS WEBSITE TCS PIN IS AVAILABLE BUT THE BIDDER IS REGISTERED ON THE CENTRAL SUPPLIER DATABASE (CSD), A CSD Report of each joint venture partner CSD registration number CSD NUMBER CSD NUMBER MUST BE PROVIDED CSD registration report (RSA suppliers only) CENTRAL SUPPLIER DATABASE (CSD) REGISTRATION Central Supplier Database (CSD) Central Supplier Database CENTRAL SUPPLIER DATABASE (CSD), A joint venture agreement signed by both parties clearly indication the lead partner, Proof of ownership/shareholder certificates/copies ATABASE (CSD) REGISTRATION • Annexure D – Pricing Schedule 10.2 Pricing schedule and specific goals credentials should be submitted with the proposal, but 2. TAX COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS 2.3 APPLICATION FOR TAX COMPLIANCE STATUS (TCS) PIN MAY BE MADE VIA E-FILING THROUGH THE SARS WEBSITE SEPARATE TCS CERTIFICATE / PIN / CSD NUMBER. 2.6 WHERE NO TCS PIN IS AVAILABLE BUT THE BIDDER IS REGISTERED ON THE CENTRAL SUPPLIER DATABASE (CSD), A CSD NUMBER MUST BE PROVIDED. • A joint venture agreement signed by both parties clearly indication the lead partner, • The Tax Compliance Status (TCS) or CSD Report of each joint venture partner; B-BBEE Details: ed to CSIR, at any time prior to this request, are still available to CSIR, and shall consequently not make any reference to such information document in its response to this request. 12.2 Copies of any affiliations, memberships and/or accreditations that support your submission must be included in the tender. 12.3 In case of proposal/s from a joint venture, the following must be submitted together with the proposal/s: • A joint venture agreement signed by both parties clearly indication the lead partner, including split of work; • Copy of a valid certificate or consolidated B-BBEE score card; • The Tax Compliance Status (TCS) or CSD Report of each joint venture partner; • Proof of ownership/shareholder certificates/copies; and • Company registration certificate/s. 12.4 An omission to disclose material information, a factual inaccuracy, and/or a misrepresentation of fact may result in the disqualification of a tender, or cancellation of any subsequent contract. 12.5 No goods and/or services should be delivered to the CSIR without an official CSIR Purchase order or signed supplier agreement. The CSIR purchase order number must be Request for Proposal CSIR RFP No.: 3724.1/09/10/2026 of 57 CSIR Tender Documentation quoted on the invoice. Invoices without CSIR purchase order numbers will be returned to supplier. 12.6 Failure to comply with any of the terms and conditions as set out in this document will invalidate the Proposal. 13 SPECIAL CONDITIONS The CSIR reserves the right to: 13.1 Extend the closing date of this RFP; 13.2 Correct any mistakes before closing date and time of the tender that may have been in the Bid documents or occurred at any stage of the tender process; 13.3 Verify any information contained in th

Question 6

What are the important dates and deadlines for this tender?

Accepted Answer

{"closingDate":"25 September 2026","closingTime":"16H30","briefingSession":"{\"date\":null,\"time\":null,\"venue\":\"ions or explanatory meetings in order to verify\",\"is_compulsory\":false}"}

Question 7

Who should be contacted for queries about this tender?

Accepted Answer

{"name":null,"email":"tender@csir.co.za","phone":null,"department":"Please use RFP No and RFP Description as subject reference","address":"2.4 Proposals submitted must be signed by a person or persons duly authorised."}

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