IEJ-Submission-General-Public-Procurement-Regulations-of-2026

This resource provides a summary of the Institute for Economic Justice’s (IEJ) submission regarding the General Public Procurement Regulations of 2026. While the IEJ acknowledges that the draft regulations and the 2024 Act represent progress, the submission highlights that current local content requirements are often evaded or waived, contributing to a crisis in the local renewable energy manufacturing sector. The IEJ argues that without clearer, more robust enforcement, the regulations risk failing to support broad-based industrial development and job creation.

Key areas addressed in the submission include:

• Strengthening Local Content Requirements: The IEJ recommends elevating local content from a points-based evaluation criterion to a mandatory prequalification requirement to ensure it is not circumvented.
• Improving Enforcement and Transparency: The submission calls for stricter oversight of waiver requests, the gazetting of all granted waivers to ensure public transparency, and the introduction of standardized product verification through the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).
• Addressing Policy Evasion: The IEJ emphasizes the need to combat tactics such as the misuse of technical standards to secure waivers and the staging of consignments to evade tariffs, both of which undermine local manufacturing.
• Strategic Alignment: The guide advocates for better coordination between procurement regulations, industrial policy, and tariff protections to create a stable, predictable demand pipeline for local businesses.

By implementing these recommendations, the IEJ posits that the government can better utilize public procurement as a tool to drive economic development, improve lifecycle value for money, and support sustainable, high-quality job creation within South Africa.