Pretoria - Mercedes Benz and MAN are the preferred bidders to supply buses and coaches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Mercedes Benz will produce semi-luxury and inter city buses, while trucking company MAN will produce general spectator buses, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe announced on Wednesday.
In addition, Government is putting a guarantee of R 1.4bn for the purpose of acquiring 570 buses.
A total of 110 general spectator buses, 168 semi-luxury coaches and 292 Intercity buses will be acquired for the World Cup.
Mr Radebe explained that an additional 260 buses will be leased from the industry, 250 for general spectator services and 10 semi-luxury coaches, bringing the total fleet to 830 for the 2010 bus and coach services to be provided by government.
He said a critical component of South Africa's transport preparations for the World Cup was the provision of transport infrastructure, but most importantly the provision of the various modes of public transportation.
During May 2008, the Department of Transport issued a request for proposal to the market for the supply of buses and coaches for the World Cup.
"We received a number of proposals and only four met all the minimum requirements to qualify for an evaluation," Minister Radebe explained.
He said the respondents were required to submit responses in two parts, namely technical and financial.
"Only three bidders were short listed after the evaluation process and were issued a Best and Final Offer (BAFO) document on 4 December 2008," he said, adding that proposals in response to the BAFO document were received from all three bidders.
The two reputed companies in the international bus services industry, MAN and Mercedes, were therefore selected as the preferred bidders for the procurement of buses for the World Cup to be held in next year.
Last month, the department, 2010 Local Organising Committee, state-owned Passenger Rail Agency South Africa (PRASA) and FIFA's MATCH signed two memoranda to assure FIFA that there would be sufficient public transport during the event.
