The only way to curb the pandemic of tenderprenuership, which has been depriving ordinary citizens of economic opportunities and access to basic services in communities, is to change procurement system to ensure that the supply chain benefits small businesses at the grassroots level. This is what Advocate Nceba Gomomo is advancing in his capacity as President of South Africa Business Trade Union (SABTU).
The procurement system should be revised to meet the mandate of transformation by shifting focus from “tenderpreneurs” (Oohlohli Sakhe”), who have with no desire to democratise and grow the economy, to small businesses , Gomomo said. “SABTU is calling for a more radical and deliberate programme to empower Afrika Enterprises and SMMES in sectors that will create more jobs for the people. By the people, I mean those who have nothing sustainable from the economy.”
South Africa needs a procurement system that will deliver a job to a bread winner in each family in South Africa, he added. “We need a system that will ensure our people’s dignity is restored and people households are preserved forthwith, and there is a balance between the corporate and social imperatives. The state must first have the conviction (heart) to change its behavior towards Afrika Enterprises and SMMES in general. South Africa. Government and Society must see Afrika Enterprises as catalyst of Economic growth.”
The malpractice of tenderprenuership has been exploited by unqualified politically-connected suppliers and their associates as a get-rich-quick scheme in which substandard goods or services are supplied usually at inflated prices to a relevant government department or local authority. Tenderprenuership has resulted in the development of poor infrastructure for hospitals, school, bridges or roads, water treatment amongst others for people in communities, perpetuating poverty and widening the income gap between haves and have nots post-1994.
The shocking revelations, which are emerging at the ongoing hearings at held by the Zondo Commission of Enquiry on State Capture, have exposed the insidious nature of corruption in the public procurement system, underscoring the urgent need for a review.