COSATU deeply dismayed by ill-conceived attempt to halt the Public Procurement Act by the Western Cape Government
5 August 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply dismayed by ill-conceived attempts to halt the implementation of the long-awaited Public Procurement Act by the Western Cape Provincial Government. This critical Act recently signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, lays the foundation for a single public procurement system across the entire state, including departments, municipalities, entities and State-Owned Enterprises.
There has not been a single public procurement legislative framework and consequently the situation in many state institutions is open to abuse and corruption. The existing legislative gaps were brought to the fore in 2022 when the Constitutional Court declared that Treasury lacked the legislative powers to set local content and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment public procurement criteria. The Zondo Commission into State Capture and Corruption heard countless evidence of how our leaky public procurement systems enable widespread corruption and wasteful expenditure.
COSATU engaged extensively with Treasury and Organised Business on the Act at Nedlac and in Parliament and reached consensus on the majority of its provisions, including:
Establishing a single public procurement framework for the entire state. This will enable common standards to be established across often-fragmented government institutions.
Requiring public procurement processes take into account and support local content and B-BBEE. This is key to supporting and creating local jobs and transforming our still racially skewed economy.
Establishing a single online site where all tender information will be available to the public. This will shine a massive spotlight on the murky world of tenders and help expose and discourage corruption.
Enabling the centralised procurement of certain key items to help the state save sorely needed revenue.
Empowering the Chief Procurement Office in Treasury to intervene and halt public procurement that falls foul of the law. This will be a powerful tool to tackle often openly corrupt tenders.
We welcome the National Council of Provinces’ amendments to the Act strengthening its anti-corruption provisions as well as:
Requiring the public disclosure and recording of any relatives of politically influential persons who receive tenders as a way of preventing the abuse of public procurement by persons in senior office.
Elevating local content as a requirement for public procurement. This is key to protecting and growing local industries and badly needed jobs.
Contrary to the misguided protests by the Western Cape Provincial Government, we remain concerned that the Act is not sufficiently binding upon local government where many municipalities struggle with procurement corruption. We however welcome the agreement with the 6th Parliament that this is a foundation Act, and government must return to Nedlac and Parliament within 24 months with regulations and a supplementary Bill to further strengthen and enhance its provisions.
What is needed now is not further navel gazing and grandiose philosophising as demanded by the Western Cape Provincial government but rather speedy implementation. We now need Treasury to draft Regulations guiding the Act’s implementation and its being rolled out across the state. The Act will play a key role in tackling corruption and supporting local procurement and jobs. This is a massive step forward by the African National Congress led government to cleanse and renew the state, support local jobs and businesses, and spur the economy. It’s a peculiar pity the Western Cape Provincial Government has missed this point.
We need to avoid entertaining the naïve and dangerously reckless call by the Western Cape Provincial Government to delay this long overdue and badly needed intervention seeking to overhaul, cleanse and modernise public procurement. We hope and expect the Western Cape Provincial Government will play its part in ensuring that its departments and entities and the 30 municipalities across the province embrace this progressive law and ensure its full implementation. There are thousands of businesses and SMMEs and hundreds of thousands of workers from the clothing factories of Salt River to the wine farms of Paarl, and the canning factories of Ashton who will benefit from the decisive implementation of this transformational law.
Issued by Matthew Parks, Parliamentary Coordinator, COSATU, 5 August 2024
