State-owned Transnet has won the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Logistics Achiever Gold Award (LAA) 2025 for its e-Tender solution.

The award, which was presented at a ceremony held at the GIBS Business School, in Johannesburg, on October 16, recognises Transnet’s role in setting a new national benchmark for public sector procurement through a fully digital, efficient and inclusive system that actively drives economic transformation.

The e-Tender solution aims to improve operational efficiency and optimise procurement processes, along with improved governance. The system includes an embedded audit trail, real-time reporting and automated business rules that have driven a verified 40% reduction in irregular expenditure.

Since its implementation, the portal has processed more than one-million documents and enabled the strategic redeployment of more than 50 people who previously were responsible for administrative tasks associated with processing of tender documents such as stamping, signing and filing, to other value-adding areas of the business.

Further, the efficiency gains have directly contributed to financial value, including R1.8-billion value delivery in the 2024/25 financial year.

Transnet chief procurement officer Vuledzani Nemukula explained that the e-Tender portal was a decisive leap forward from manual processes, replacing physical tender boxes and paper submissions with a cloud-based, secure and transparent digital environment.

“We have not had physical tender boxes at Transnet since October 2021. This innovation has fundamentally changed the speed and integrity of Transnet’s supply chain management,” he said.

He added that Transnet’s e-Tender portal was a critical enabler of the knowledge economy. By centralising and standardising procurement data, the platform laid the groundwork for a future powered by advanced analytics.

He pointed out that, by removing the physical and financial barriers associated with paper-based tenders, the e-Tender portal had increased accessibility for small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) across the country.

“Furthermore, we have tailored our submission times to ensure SMMEs can make use of night-time data to upload large documents, saving them on additional costs,” Nemukula explained.

The portal’s broad reach has attracted more than 30 000 suppliers so far, signalling a broadening of the participation base as it fosters accountability and public trust. The idea is that digitalisation levels the playing field, ensuring that geography and administrative complexity are no longer barriers to entry for SMMEs seeking to participate in the logistics value chain.

“This milestone aligns with Transnet’s broader ICT Digital Modernisation Strategy, which is fundamentally about transforming how technology supports operational excellence and business agility.

“Through business process automation, data-driven intelligence and platform-based integration, we are not just digitising workflows [but are] redefining how the enterprise operates,” Transnet chief information officer Pandelani Munyai said.

“Our vision is to make automation a catalyst for growth, where technology enhances human capability, accelerates service delivery and strengthens Transnet’s competitiveness in a connected, data-driven economy,” she added.

The e-Tender portal marked the beginning of Transnet’s digital transformation journey. The next phase of the programme, which is currently under way, involves implementing a comprehensive end-to-end digital solution.

By automating manual steps in the procurement lifecycle, the new digital solution seeks to slash the procurement cycle time from about six months to a projected 43 days. This represents a 75% improvement in turnaround time.

The system's roadmap includes predictive analytics, real-time insights into supplier performance and pricing and automated data cleanup and classification.

“This move towards data-driven decision-making ensures that Transnet remains agile, resilient and at the forefront of logistics management, allowing us to transition from simply procuring goods to strategically managing our entire value chain with scientific precision,” said Nemukula.

Transnet is currently commercialising its e-Tender portal, with plans under way to extend its services and governance model to other State-owned companies.