The state of South African government tenders
An analysis of 161 285 tenders published on the National Treasury eTenders system between 2009-06-26 and 2026-08-04. Updated 2026-08-17.
Free to quote and cite. Please link back to this page so readers can check the method.
One in 8 tenders is cancelled
Of the 161 285 tenders analysed, 21 038 (13%) were cancelled by the buyer rather than awarded or closed normally. The rate has risen over time.
| Year | Published | Cancelled | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 13 716 | 1 401 | 10.2% |
| 2022 | 28 457 | 3 819 | 13.4% |
| 2023 | 33 558 | 4 656 | 13.9% |
| 2024 | 33 366 | 4 850 | 14.5% |
| 2025 | 32 525 | 4 557 | 14% |
| 2026 (part year) | 19 440 | 1 742 | 9% |
* 2026 is a part year and is not annualised.
Most tenders give you three weeks. One in five gives you a week.
Measured across 160 774 tenders with both an advert and a closing date, the median gap is 20 days. But the distribution has a long tail at the short end, and that is where bids are lost — not to a better competitor, but to never having seen the tender.
20 days
median time from advert to closing
8 days
a quarter of tenders give this or less
40.6%
give 14 days or less
21.6%
give 7 days or less
Tendering has a season
Publication is far from even across the year. Nov is the busiest month at 10.1% of all tenders; Dec is the quietest at 4.7%. If you resource a bid team, resource it for the second half of the year.
How tenders end
| Closed | 105 234 | 65.2% |
| Awarded | 32 813 | 20.3% |
| Cancelled | 21 038 | 13% |
| Published | 1 818 | 1.1% |
| Draft | 359 | 0.2% |
"Closed" means the closing date passed; the portal does not always update a record to "Awarded" afterwards, so the true award share is higher than the Awarded line alone suggests.
Right now
A live snapshot of the last 4 days, updated 2026-09-16.
By province
| Gauteng | 166 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 83 |
| Western Cape | 72 |
| Eastern Cape | 71 |
| National | 50 |
| Mpumalanga | 42 |
| Limpopo | 23 |
| Free State | 19 |
| Northern Cape | 15 |
| North West | 11 |
By category
| services | 415 |
| goods | 87 |
| works | 71 |
For journalists and researchers
Every figure here is free to quote. We will share the underlying dataset, walk through the method, or answer questions on the record — get in touch.
Suggested citation
TenderPing (2026). The state of South African government tenders: an analysis of 161 285 tenders, 2009–2026. Retrieved from https://tenderping.co.za/reports/sa-government-tenders
Method
Every record published on the National Treasury eTenders system that the portal returns for its full archive, 2009-06-26 to 2026-08-04. Lead time is the gap between the published date and the closing date, excluding records missing either date and those spanning more than a year (standing arrangements rather than a tender you respond to), leaving 160 774 of 161 285. Figures are not adjusted or weighted. We deliberately do not publish a buyer ranking: the archive feed carries an organ-of-state name on only about 2% of records, so any such table would describe that 2%, not the country.
Figures come from the National Treasury eTenders dataset, published as a public beta and not guaranteed accurate — always verify against the official notice before relying on it.