CIDB contractor registration

Why the grade matters

The CIDB Act says public bodies may only award construction contracts to registered contractors, and the Register of Contractors is where the buyer checks you. Every tender for building, civil, electrical or mechanical work quotes a required grade and class, for example 2GB or 1CE. Without a matching entry on the register your bid is set aside before anyone reads the price.

Grade 1 is the entry level and needs no turnover, no track record and no available capital. It lets you compete for public work up to R500 000 per contract in each class you hold. That is most municipal maintenance, small building and repair work, which is exactly where new contractors start.

What actually goes wrong

The CIDB application itself is a form and a fee. Applications stall for the reasons around it.

• No CSD numberThe CIDB online system will not open a new application without a Central Supplier Database number. Half the people who ask us for CIDB are not on the CSD yet. We can register you on the CSD first, or fold it in if you order the tender ready pack.
• The wrong class of worksGeneral building (GB), civil engineering (CE), electrical building (EB), electrical infrastructure (EP), mechanical (ME) and sixteen specialist classes are graded separately and each costs its own fee. Register for a class you do not tender in and you have paid for nothing; leave one out and you are excluded from the tender you wanted.
• Documents where none are neededGrade 1 is fully paperless: the CIDB asks for login details and a card, nothing else. Supporting documents, including director identity copies and bank statements no older than three months, are only required from Grade 2 upwards. Anyone charging you to certify documents for a Grade 1 application is charging for something the CIDB does not ask for.
• Electrical work without the certificateThe EB class needs an electrical contractor’s certificate in the name of the company applying, not in the name of the electrician who owns it.
• A tax status that does not verifyRegistration is conditional on a valid tax compliance status, checked again every year. A non-compliant status with SARS stops the grade being issued, and later stops it being renewed.

What you get for R1 490

• The right classes chosen with youWe go through the work you actually tender for and pick the classes of works that match, so you pay the CIDB fee only for entries you will use.
• A pre-check before anything is submittedCSD number, CIPC record, tax compliance status and, for electrical work, the contractor’s certificate. Anything that will fail is fixed before it costs you a fee.
• The application prepared and submittedOn the CIDB’s eRoC online register, and where a Grade 2 to 9 application needs supporting documents, uploaded in the format it wants.
• The CIDB fee handledR450 per class of works, paid to the CIDB. We confirm the exact total with you first and nothing is submitted until you have said yes.
• Your grading designation confirmedYour CRS number and grade, in writing and in your client portal, with a note on what it lets you tender for.
• The renewal date diarisedA reminder before the three-year renewal, and before the annual tax compliance check, so the grade does not lapse in the middle of a tender.

Grades 2 to 9 are assessed on turnover, largest completed contract and available capital, and need financial statements and signed track record evidence. If that is you, see CIDB Grade 2 to 9 registration at R2 990.

How it works

1. 1Order and answer the short formCompany details, the kind of construction work you do, your CSD number if you have one, and your tax status.
2. 2We check and chooseWe confirm the classes of works, tell you what we still need from you, and give you the exact CIDB fee for approval.
3. 3Submitted and activatedWe lodge the application, pay the CIDB fee, and send you the grading designation once the CIDB activates it, normally within 48 working hours of a complete submission.

Not sure which grade or class you need? Ask us first and you get a written answer within one business day.

What we will need from you

• Your CIPC registration number, and the company documents if they are not already on your portal.
• Your CSD supplier number, the one that starts with MAAA. If you do not have one, say so and we start there.
• Your directors’ names and identity numbers, as a plain list. Grade 1 needs no document copies at all. From Grade 2 up the CIDB asks for identity copies, shareholder certificates and bank statements no older than three months, and we tell you which of those apply before anything is submitted.
• Your tax compliance status PIN from SARS eFiling, so the status can be verified.
• The classes of works you want, or a plain description of the jobs you tender for and we map them.
• For electrical building work, the electrical contractor’s certificate in the company name.
• An email address and a card or instant EFT for the CIDB fee, because the online register only accepts those. The CIDB does not take cash.
• The phone that receives the bank’s one time pin, in the hands of whoever is paying. The CIDB’s own manual makes a point of it, and it is the commonest reason an application stalls halfway with the fee unpaid.

Three things that disqualify a contractor

The CIDB’s conditions of registration and the declaration you sign carry three bars that have nothing to do with paperwork. We check them before you spend anything.

• Any restriction on tenderingThe contractor must be free from any restriction to tender. A restriction anywhere else stops the registration here.
• The Register of Tender DefaultersYou declare that neither the enterprise nor any partner, member, director, manager or person exercising control over it appears on the register established under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004. One name on it sinks the application.
• The Code of ConductRegistration binds you to the Code of Conduct for All Parties Engaged in Construction Procurement, published in Government Gazette 25656 of 2003. Breaches are published by the CIDB.

The grades in one table

Tender value limits set in Government Gazette 42561 of 5 July 2019, in force from 7 October 2019, and the CIDB’s own fees for each grade. Grade 1 is the only grade with no qualifying criteria.

Grades 2 to 9 also update their particulars every year and are assessed within 21 days. Every grade is renewed every three years.

Frequently asked questions

What the tender will ask for next

A CIDB grade gets you past the first gate. The same bid will want your CSD number, a B-BBEE affidavit, a tax compliance status that verifies and, once you are on site, a current COIDA letter of good standing. The tender ready pack covers the paperwork side in one go.