The DA says it will use public pressure and negotiations within the government of national unity (GNU) to push its proposed overhaul of SA’s public procurement system through the National Assembly.
The DA, with 87 seats, is the second-largest party in the National Assembly and the GNU. However, the DA alone cannot pass legislation; it must work through the coalition or agreement with other parties, including the ANC or smaller parties, to secure the required majority.
If the proposals pass, they would overhaul how the state spends its R1-trillion annual procurement budget. The ANC is unlikely to support the proposals, as its recently released 10-point economic plan places transformation as one of the backbones to reviving the economy.
The DA’s proposed amendments to the Public Procurement Act, tabled last week as a private member’s bill, need parliamentary approval before they can become law. The DA hopes to build cross-party backing by positioning the reforms as a practical alternative to the broad-based BEE (BBBEE) framework, which it argues has entrenched elite enrichment rather than broad participation.
The Public Procurement Act, which was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July 2024, represents a fundamental overhaul of public procurement and overcomes the previous fragmentation into 34 acts with their regulations. It is not yet in force, as regulations still have to be promulgated. It provides for preferential procurement for designated groups and pre-qualification criteria, as well as set-asides and subcontracting.
The proposed Economic Inclusion for All Bill seeks to amend the Public Procurement Act to remove all race-based tender preferences and replace them with an outcomes-driven scorecard tied to the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Under the DA’s plan, public tender evaluations would be determined primarily by value for money, accounting for 80% of total weighting, while a new economic inclusion scorecard would contribute the remaining 20%. Bidders would be rated on tangible developmental outcomes such as job creation, skills training, environmental impact and contributions to low-income communities.
The party says the new system will cut red tape and reduce the high costs of complying with BBBEE rules.
The DA’s head of policy, Matthew Cuthbert, said the DA will use every platform available to build consensus, both inside and outside parliament.
“We’ll be raising it in the cabinet and the GNU every time transformation and empowerment policies are discussed,” he said. “It’s not something that will evaporate into the ether once the bill is introduced.
“The BEE model has become a key driver of corruption within our society. We have witnessed this in the widespread looting of approximately R2bn from Tembisa Hospital and the murder of Ekurhuleni’s divisional head of corporate & forensic audits, Mpho Mafole, after submitting a scathing report relating to the R1.8bn chemical toilets tender.”
He also referred to Transnet “unlawfully inflat[ing] the price of a 2014 contract to procure 1,064 locomotives from R39bn to R54bn to favour Chinese suppliers and channelled over R6bn in kickbacks to Gupta-linked companies under the pretence of transformation”.
