Questions raised around local procurement by SOEs

The steel producers’ association
has denied claims by a local
manufacturer that stateowned
enterprises (SOEs)
are not honouring their local
procurement obligations.
This after a manufacturer
of steel products told FTW, on
condition of anonymity, that
many of the steel products
sourced by the railway industry,
amongst others, were not local
– even though the capability to
produce them locally did exist.
“We have been producing
certain railway parts in South
Africa for years but have lost
market share to our Chinabased
competitors through
the various manufacturing
deals that have been signed by
SOEs recently,” he said,.
He told FTW that this
would make sense if the
products were not made
locally or if the locally made
products were inferior. “But
this is not the case with either
of those exemptions,” he said.
Steel and Engineering
Industries Federation of
South Africa (Seifsa) CEO
Kaizer Nyatsumba told FTW
that he had no knowledge of
that particular claim. “We
have long been lobbying
government to force SOEs to
procure their metals locally
and, by and large, we have
seen tremendous support for
that,” he said.
However, Nyatsumba
commented, there was not
always strong collaboration
around certain policies
– including procurement
policies – between
government departments.
Subsequently, he pointed
out, when deals were being
made between different
departments, there could be a
disconnect around policies.
“Furthermore there are
certainly leakages around the
general implementation of
these procurement policies
and we have seen, in certain
cases, that procedures are not
as they should be,” he said.
INSERT & CAPTION
There are certainly
leakages around the
implementation of
the procurement
policies.
– Kaiser Nyatsumba