Cabinet approves draft bill on procurement
The cabinet has approved the long-awaited draft Public Procurement Bill, which will standardise fragmented public procurement practices, for submission to parliament.
“The draft bill aims to create a single framework for public procurement and eliminate fragmentation in the laws dealing with public procurement,” minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said at a post-cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday.
The bill repeals the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act. The 2017 preferential procurement regulations under the act which allowed government entities to set pre-qualifying criteria for tenders such as companies needing to be 51% black owned was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in February 2022. The court found the act did not empower the finance minister to make such regulations.
The draft has been several years in the making and has been subjected to deliberations in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) but consensus on key proposals failed.
“The significance of the draft bill is that it provides for the advancement of our national objectives on transformation and the empowerment of women and people with disabilities,” the minister said. “It also provides for the promotion of localisation and supporting local innovation and research and gives preference to procurement from small and medium enterprises of this country.”
Ntshavheni said prioritising procurement from small and medium enterprises is significant as the government is the largest procurer of goods and services. It will also regulate payments to these enterprises. Preference will be given to procurement from women, youth and people with disabilities.
The state spends about R900bn a year on procurement.
The prioritisation of locally produced goods, which is not covered properly, would allow the participation of the previously disadvantaged in the economy, Ntshavheni said.
“We need to understand that when you are prioritising localisation or locally produced goods and services there will be a price factor so National Treasury will work out how to mitigate the impact of pricing to promote ‘made in SA’ products. We will have to benchmark what is the pricing. There is always a cost in promoting local innovation, locally researched products and local manufacturing.”
Priority will be given to SAinnovated or researched products. “Everywhere else globally where there have been developments those developments have happened because the governments of those jurisdictions have intentionally promoted products made in their own countries,” the minister said.
The bill further deals with procurement between departments, from another sphere of government or public entities such as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research without having to go out to tender.
The cabinet has also approved the draft Correctional Services Amendment Bill for submission to parliament. The amendments are in response to the judgment handed down by the Constitutional Court in December 2020 in the case of Sonke Gender Justice v the president of SA and others.
The Constitutional Court upheld a judgment by the Western Cape High Court that sections of the act dealing with the judicial inspectorate of correctional services are unconstitutional and invalid in that they do not provide for the structural and operational independence of the inspectorate.
“The amendments entrench the independence of the [inspectorate] as contemplated in the constitution,” Ntshavheni said.
The constitution gave parliament two years to amend the bill but the minister said justice & correctional services minister Ronald Lamola had asked the Constitutional Court for a deferment of the date set. The delay was due to the prolonged public participation process.
The cabinet approved the national integrated strategy to combat wildlife trafficking, which Ntshavheni said is the first of its kind in SA. Its primary goal is to empower law enforcement structures with the necessary tools to reduce and prevent “the increasing scourge of wildlife trafficking in the country, which is posing a threat to the country’s national security”.
The strategy proposals cover the investigation and prosecution of wildlife trafficking syndicates. The strategy is available on the website of the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment.