TOWARDS PROCUREMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT: A COMMENT ON PARI – POSITIONS ON STATE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA

This briefing by Niall Reddy provides a commentary on the Public Affairs Research Institute's (PARI) position papers regarding state reform in South Africa. Reddy argues that public procurement (PP) should be transitioned from a tool for simple outsourcing or black business growth toward a strategic instrument of industrial policy (IP) and 'Procurement for Innovation' (PPfI) to drive high-productivity, innovation-led growth.

• The author argues that public sector reform in South Africa must avoid focusing solely on downsizing, restraining the state, or market discipline, as this would erode the capacities necessary to establish a new developmental path and potentially reinforce the cycle of slow growth, social pressure, corruption, and patrimonialism.
• Public procurement (PP) can serve as a powerful tool for industrial policy (IP) by providing stable, non-market demand for emerging industries, helping them reach critical scale thresholds, and incentivizing the development of new technologies through 'Procurement for Innovation' (PPfI).
• The author distinguishes between developmental PP, which enhances innovation-led growth in high-productivity industries, and non-developmental PP, which involves outsourcing state services to firms that remain dependent on public contracts. In South Africa, the author asserts that the majority of PP currently falls into the non-developmental category.
• While PP in South Africa has supported the growth of black business through tenders and BEE scorecards, the author suggests that state-dependent businesses created via this framework may be central to the political coalitions driving 'state capture'.
• The author criticizes the PARI position paper for accepting the emergence of a 'contract state' as an inevitable global trend and focusing on the efficiency of contracting rather than questioning its long-term effects or exploring alternatives.

APA

Reddy, N. (2019). TOWARDS PROCUREMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT: A COMMENT ON PARI – POSITIONS ON STATE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ACP_20190712_NiallReddy_ProcurementComments.pdf

Chicago

Reddy, Niall. TOWARDS PROCUREMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT: A COMMENT ON PARI – POSITIONS ON STATE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA. Public Affairs Research Institute, 2019. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ACP_20190712_NiallReddy_ProcurementComments.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Reddy |first1=Niall |title=TOWARDS PROCUREMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT: A COMMENT ON PARI – POSITIONS ON STATE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=July 2019 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ACP_20190712_NiallReddy_ProcurementComments.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{reddy2019towards, author = {Reddy, Niall}, title = {{TOWARDS PROCUREMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT: A COMMENT ON PARI – POSITIONS ON STATE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2019}, month = jul, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ACP_20190712_NiallReddy_ProcurementComments.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }