Objectives

The primary objective of this tender is to appoint a service provider to provide third-party bill payment services for municipal bills, rates, and services payments to Theewaterskloof Municipality. The provider must facilitate convenient, secure, and modern payment methods to enhance revenue collection, improve customer service, and increase payment points within the municipal area and major cities across South Africa.

Scope

The scope of work includes:

• Providing third-party payment services via retail outlets, financial institutions, and digital platforms (QR code payments).
• Ensuring payment outlets are conveniently located within the municipal area and major cities, operational seven days a week, including public holidays.
• Supporting various payment channels such as retail stores (e.g., Checkers, Pick n Pay, Shoprite), bank cards (Mastercard/Visa), instant EFT, mobile wallets (MTN MoMo), and digital wallets (Money Market).
• Facilitating daily payment processing and reporting, with payments deposited into the municipality’s bank account daily.
• Providing offsite backup systems and supporting existing retailers and digital payment points managed by the current service provider.
• Implementing secure, compliant payment methods approved by the South African Reserve Bank.

Technical Requirements

The technical requirements include:

• Ability to process a minimum of 1500 transactions per batch, with all costs per transaction included in the pricing.
• Provision of secure, compliant payment platforms supporting multiple payment channels.
• Daily reconciliation and reporting of payments, including detailed data files (e.g., CSV format).
• Offsite hosting of backup systems that meet environmental standards.
• Support for existing pay points and digital payment options, with hardware and system support provided to ensure full operation.
• Provision of cost-effective processes, equipment, and technologies to enhance revenue management.

Skills Requirements

The bidder must demonstrate:

• Experience in providing third-party payment services within South Africa, particularly for municipal or government entities.
• Capability to operate across multiple payment channels and retail outlets with secure and reliable technology.
• Ability to process high transaction volumes efficiently and accurately, with daily reconciliation and reporting.
• Provision of offsite backup systems that comply with environmental and security standards.
• Strong internal controls and reporting mechanisms to support revenue collection and data management.
• Capacity to support existing pay points and digital payment platforms managed by the current service provider.