ROB DAVIES: State’s relationship with social partners is critical to building culture of buying local
The localisation programme has strengthened SA's skills base, with thousands of jobs having been created and billions in private-sector investment unlocked
In December 2011, as a key component of industrial policy, the government amended the preferential procurement regulations to strengthen the use of procurement to promote localisation. The regulations empower government to designate products and sectors with minimum local content thresholds in the public sector’s procurement system The Treasury estimates that the SA government has an annual procurement spend of R800bn. Through decisions to explicitly require defined percentages of procurement spend to be sourced from locally based producers, this creates significant potential to stimulate economic and industrial development, create jobs and increase the participation of black industrialists in productive sectors. SA has the policy space to deploy this tool by deliberately declining to accede to the World Trade Organisation protocol on public procurement. To date, 23 sectors and products have been designated for local content and production under the preferential procurement regulati...
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