The draft second edition of the cidb's Standard for Uniformity in Construction Procurement does not change what grading you hold. It changes the instructions every organ of state in South Africa follows when it applies the register to a contract, decides what you return with a bid, and pays you against a certificate.
That is the useful way to read Board Notice 986 of 2026, and it is not the way the notice reads itself. The gazette calls it a procurement standard. For a contractor it is a list of what the person evaluating your bid is about to be told to check. And the comment window on it closes on 30 September 2026.
What was gazetted, and what it replaces
The notice appeared in Government Gazette 55409 on 18 September 2026, under sections 4(f), 5(3)(c) and 5(4)(b) of the Construction Industry Development Board Act 38 of 2000, read with regulation 24 of the cidb regulations. It is a republication. The same draft went out first as Notice 963 in Gazette 55046 on 24 July 2026, and both gazettes carry the full text of the draft, 75 pages of it in September.
It replaces two things. The first edition of the standard, published as Board Notice 62 of 2004 and last amended by Board Notice 136 of 2015 in Gazette 38960 of 10 July 2015. And the Standard for Uniformity in Engineering and Construction Works Contracts, issued as Notice 423 of 2019 in Gazette 42622 of 8 August 2019. The notice says the second edition "replaces" both. It says no more than that about the 2019 standard, and neither does this piece.
The draft itself is dated 2 April 2026. The full text is on the cidb website, and comments go through an online form linked from that page, with enquiries to cidbSFU2026PublicComments@CIDBoard.onmicrosoft.com. Comments must name the clause, paragraph or section they refer to, and late submissions may not be considered.
When do comments on the Standard for Uniformity close?
Comments close on 30 September 2026, by the cidb's own extension, even though both gazette notices say they were due "by 31 August 2026". The September gazette repeats the July date without amending it, so as printed the window closed eighteen days before the second notice appeared.
The cidb has extended it. Its website carries the notice that the public comment period on the draft second edition "has been extended to 30 September 2026", and the online submission form is still open behind that notice. Nothing in either gazette records the extension, so a contractor reading only the Government Gazette would conclude they had missed it. They have not, until the end of this month.
What the contents page says a client must now run
This piece reads the contents page as a contractor. Nothing here describes the wording of a clause. It describes what the heading says the clause is for, and the draft itself is the document to read before you comment.
- 5.8, Applying the CIDB register of contractors to public contracts. The clause that tells an organ of state how to use your grading designation. It sits at page 49 of the draft. When an advert says "6CE or higher", this is the rule the buyer is meant to be following.
- 5.7.4, Returnable documents. What you must send back with a tender. If you have ever lost a bid on a missing page, this is the clause that decides which pages count.
- 5.6.4, Subcontracting as a condition of contract. Under preferential procurement. Where a main contractor is required to subcontract, this is where the requirement is written.
- 5.3, Framework agreements. The panel appointments that now dominate the Gauteng board. A three-year panel is a framework agreement, and 4.3.5 covers how orders are issued under one.
- 4.7.3 and 4.7.4, Qualifications of a contract manager, and Payment against certified amounts. Who on the client's side is competent to run your contract, and the rule that payment follows a certified amount.
- 4.6.4, Emergency procurement. The deviation route, and the one most often argued over afterwards.
- Section 6, Conduct. Conflicts of interest at 6.2, evaluation of submissions at 6.3, and gratifications, hospitality and gifts at 6.4.
Annex A is an implementation guide, and A5 deals with managing multi-year construction works projects over a three-year horizon, including contingencies, control budgets and multi-year budgeting. That is the client's problem on paper. It is your cash flow in practice.
The register applied to a contract, live
Two adverts on the board this week show what 5.8 governs. Gauteng Roads and Transport is establishing a three-year panel of civil engineering contractors at "6CE, 7CE, 8CE and 9CE" (DRT04/08/2026). Its compulsory briefing is on 23 September at 10:00 and it closes on 6 October at 11:00. Magalies Water's Lichtenburg water scheme intervention asks for "CIDB GRADING 7 CE OR HIGHER" (RFB/MW/ES-09/2026-27), closing 6 October at 12:00, its compulsory briefing already past on 15 September. Both are on the public board.
Neither advert cites the standard. Both apply it. The buyer wrote a designation into an advert, and the standard is the document that says how that designation is meant to be read, evidenced and enforced. We have written separately on what the grading levels mean and on what 6CE asks of a firm; this is the rule underneath both.
Read that way, 5.8, 5.7.4 and 5.6.4 together are a verification checklist written as public policy. Arabella Infrastructure Solutions is a Johannesburg-based vetted contractor panel that runs that checklist on every contractor in its network, against the same register, before a client sees a name. A contractor already holding the paperwork 5.7.4 asks back is not scrambling for it on the Friday before close. What the check covers is set out for contractors here, and the cidb notices we read each week are collected in insights.
On Monday
Download the draft from cidb.org.za and read three clauses against your last returnable schedule: 5.8, 5.7.4 and 4.7.4. Note anything that would have cost you a bid in the last year.
Then send it, through the form on the cidb page, before 30 September 2026. Cite the clause number and state the amendment you want. If you are reading this after that date, send it anyway to the enquiries address. A late comment on the record is worth more than a correct one in your head, and the notice says late submissions "may not" be considered, not that they will not.
