Cana­dian com­pany Embross North Amer­ica has ini­ti­ated an urgent applic­a­tion to inter­dict Acsa from con­tinu­ing with a new bid­ding pro­cess for a mul­ti­mil­lion-rand tender aimed at infra­struc­ture over­haul of the coun­try’s air­ports.

If the court grants the inter­dict, it will res­ult in a delay in Acsa’s plans to mod­ern­ise infra­struc­ture to align SA with global avi­ation stand­ards under the Inter­na­tional Air Trans­port Asso­ci­ation’s fast travel strategy.

Embross North Amer­ica was one of the bid­ders for the tender estim­ated to be worth more than R50m for the sup­ply, install­a­tion and main­ten­ance of com­mon-use pas­sen­ger pro­cessing sys­tems and com­mon-use self-ser­vice kiosks across Acsa air­port net­works.

According to Business Day, Acsa can­celled the tender in June due to ‘mater­ial irreg­u­lar­it­ies’ before it was awar­ded.

A new bid­ding pro­cess was advert­ised on 3 Octo­ber 2025. 

Embross North Amer­ica wants the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to stop Acsa from con­tinu­ing with the new bid­ding pro­cess pending a review applic­a­tion into the can­celled tender.

Colin Rip, rep­res­ent­ing Embross North Amer­ica, argued yesterday that the can­cel­la­tion of the ini­tial tender was unlaw­ful. If the new tender pro­ceeded, it would render the review applic­a­tion moot.

He said that without the inter­dict Acsa would argue in the review applic­a­tion a new tender had been awar­ded and would render the review moot.

The com­pany’s pre­vi­ous urgent applic­a­tion was struck from the roll in Septem­ber due to a lack of urgency because the new tender had not been advert­ised at the time.

Nos­isa Kekana, rep­res­ent­ing Acsa, argued the applic­a­tion should be struck off the roll again because of its ‘pro­ced­ural pos­ture.’

Act­ing Judge Romeo Nthambel­eni reserved judg­ment.

Full Business Day report