The DA needs to clarify where it stands with regards to the advancement of blacks, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said in the National Assembly on Wednesday during a debate on the Public Procurement Bill.
Concluding the debate later on the medium-term budget policy statement and the Adjustments Appropriation Bill, Godongwana said a vote for the DA would be a vote for the reversal of the gains made by the ANC government and for firing all black people in senior positions. It would also be “support for the continued genocide in Gaza”, which has been bombed by Israel in its war against Hamas. Godongwana said only the ANC could ensure stability for SA.
The National Assembly adopted the Public Procurement Bill, which provides for preferential procurement to designated groups, including blacks, women, youth and people with disabilities as well as for set-asides, mandatory subcontracting and provisions for localisation.
The IFP and GOOD supported the bill and the DA, FF+ and ACDP opposed it, with the EFF reserving its position. The bill will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence, which will probably happen after parliament's December-January recess.
The aim of the bill is to create a consolidated and flexible framework for procurement by organs of state. In opening the debate, Gondongwana said the bill also aimed to correct the omission in the Preferential Public Procurement Framework Act regarding the powers of the minister to make regulations that were identified by the Constitutional Court. It also addressed the government’s transformation agenda.
The government spends hundreds of billions a year on the procurement of goods and services, so it has a powerful tool to advance its policy objectives.
Godongwana referred to the constitution’s requirement that past imbalances must be redressed. He highlighted what he said was a distinction between the price and value for money, which the constitution required.
In concluding the debate, Gondongwana referred to a speech opposing the bill by DA finance spokesperson Dion George.
“I think the DA must not mislead South Africans. The DA has got to make it clear [it stands] ... on the issue of the advancement of black people. That is a key question. They are beating about the bush. What they do is to hide behind corruption, behind racial things. The critical question is that SA society is crafted in a racial mode,” Godongwana said.
He said the bill was not a measure aimed at preventing and combating corruption activities. There was legislation to deal with this. What the bill did, he said, was to put systems in place to identify corruption.
ANC MP Noxolo Abrahams said the bill “unashamedly” aimed to advantage black people and said the ANC was against corruption. Addressing FF+ MP Wouter Wessels who said the preferential procurement system was abused to advance the interests of cadres and fat cat tenderpreneurs, Abrahams said: “You stole the land”. The bill would not stop corruption, Wessels said.
ACDP MP Steve Swart said his party did not support preferential procurement, which had contributed to state capture and grossly inflated government contracts.
In his speech, George referred to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) caution that preferential procurement in SA added a 20% premium to the state’s cost of goods and services, which, he said, amounted to R160bn of a R800bn procurement figure. He said the government was very happy to pay the hefty premiums because ANC politicians and their associates were the beneficiaries of the front companies that were set up to profit from state contracts and many became millionaires and billionaires.
“Price is crucially important because government is running out of money and can’t afford to overpay for anything. The irony here is that money for service delivery to the poorest South Africans is crowded out by paying more to service providers, apparently to empower them. So money is diverted from the poorest households to other beneficiaries.
“The DA rejects this bill because it does not fix the core issue of systemic corruption and is another disastrous piece of race-based legislation.
“The DA reaffirms our commitment to nonracialism and will continue to strongly oppose the continued usage of crude racial categories in the implementation of preferential procurement policies.”
George said the bill would cause additional market distortions that will lead to inefficiencies in the public sector as confirmed by the Harvard Growth Hub that recently highlighted preferential procurement as a primary cause of the collapse of state capacity.
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