Comrade S. Sekoati
31 October 2025
Over the past 31 years, the democratic government has developed transformative policies and legislation which advance the spirit and intention of the Constitution when it committed in its preamble to recognise the injustices of the past. In the Bill of Rights, focusing on Equality, the Constitution clearly gives expression to the preamble when it states that “ Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken”
On Procurement the South African constitution and unambiguous in section 217 (1) that when an organ of state in the national, provincial or local sphere of government, or any other institution identified in national legislation, contracts for goods or services, it must do so in accordance with a system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective.
In Subsection (2) it says “ organs of state or institutions referred to in that subsection from implementing a procurement policy providing for—
(a) categories of preference in the allocation of contracts; and
(b) the protection or advancement of persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination.
This is a constitutional obligation and the motion of the Democratic Alliance, though it seems to advance preferential procurement, but if you take to deep look at their proposed Public Procurement Amendment Bill.
Public Expenditure is a significant contributor to the economy as the single highest consumer of goods and services. In South Africa, the Government spends almost R1 trillion on procurement annually, accounting for 12% of GDP. This 1 trillion does not benefit a few, as the DA would like South Africans to believe.
Firstly, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act of 2000 gave expression to the objective of the constitution by recognising that White Males have been the beneficiaries of state procurement and participating in the economy, wherein the state plays a key catalyst role. It is for this reason that the Constitution was drafted in the manner it is. Broad-Based
The Black Economic Empowerment Act No. 53 of 2003, has served as a tool to transform the economy
The preferential procurement framework ensured that in allocating scores for evaluation, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Level should be evaluated with a 10% or 20% threshold allocated based on BBBEE compliance, including a decision to allocate particular preference points for the Youth, Women and Persons with disabilities. This has ensured that public procurement does not only disproportionally benefit white males in particular, who own and control the majority of the South African economy.
Today, have many young black women who own and manage small and medium-sized businesses that provide services to the government, women are owning successful construction companies and are also manufacturing goods which the government procures. Persons with disabilities are also prioritised in the current procurement framework, ensuring the government empower those who are marginalised. Through the preferential procurement, municipalities have also been able to prioritise the local residents for various economic opportunities, advancing the localisation of beneficiaries of state procurement.
As a matter of fact, the progressive legislation of Preferential procurement, like the Employment Equity Act, has also benefited White women, who were also marginalised by white males. Without the democratic breakthrough, the social position of white women would not be what it is today.
The Public Procurement Act, assented to by the President, enables the government to not have set-asides for the youth, women, persons with disabilities, and more provisions for local content to stimulate economic growth. This will ensure the government involved any marginalised South Africans in the supply chain of the economy.
The DA’s, Public Procurement Amendment Bill is part of a whole range of legislative proposals of the DA to reverse the gains of the democratic government by reversing all policies which focus on the empowerment of Blacks and Africans in particular. The DA challenges the Expropriation Act, which seeks to empower the state to expropriate property in certain circumstances without compensation. They are challenging the Legal Sector Code for the transformation and restructuring of the legal profession, broadening access to justice by creating equal opportunities. “South Africa’s corporate law firms are still dominated by white men, especially in the upper echelons: 80 per cent of the chief executives of the 12 firms canvassed in the survey were white men, as were 72 per cent of all managing partners.”[1]
The Democratic Alliance seeks to restore this status quo.
Specifically, in their Public Procurement Amendment Bill, they seek to direct public procurement away from race-based classifications, such as those that replace the BBBEE assessment with an assessment of the Sustainable Development Goals. In their critique of the current framework, they falsely claim that a focus on assessing contributions to poverty alleviation, job creation, education, health, and environmental sustainability without racial consideration will lead to the reduction of inequality in South Africa.
This is a blatant misrepresentation of the reality of the Country, as inequality in South Africa has a specific context of land dispossession, which is an asset and a colonial and apartheid state that was designed on the back of injustice and inequality to benefit the white minority. Without tackling asset inequality in South Africa, we will continue to produce poverty and unemployment. The current owners of means of production in South Africa have resisted all attempts to share the wealth of this country and reasserted their control of the economy through financialization and developing complex ownership structures which do not tilt the ownership patterns of the economy.
The DA further conflate preferential procurements to be against value for money, which is a distortion. Yes, we must deal with corrupt practices which exploit the tendering system, but that does not negate the necessity of the state to use procurement as a transformative instrument, as enshrined in the constitution. As a matter of fact, the DA proposal actually lowers the standard for value for money by proposing a 30% share of weighting to be price, while the current system has a high standard of 80% and 90%.
South Africa is not the only country with race-based preferential procurement; Australia, Canada, Colombia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil have indigenous or targeted Procurement Policies.
Today, the DA want the white minority to dominate the over 1 trillion expenditure.
The ANC will not support the Public Procurement Amendment Bill, as it is an antithesis of dealing with the race and gender contradictions impacting South Africa.
[1] Legal Sector Code (LSC) is a Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) framework