A Strategic Public Procurement Paradigm for South Africa

The paper critiques South Africa's current administrative procurement system as being too rigid for complex projects and prone to corruption. It proposes a strategic approach that empowers accounting officers, integrates specialist technical functions, and shifts integrity oversight from restrictive rules to stronger enforcement and transparency mechanisms.

• The current South African procurement regime follows an 'administrative paradigm' that is suitable for basic, off-the-shelf goods but fails in complex purchasing and public infrastructure delivery.
• The administrative paradigm has contributed to state capture by marginalising technical professionals and shifting decision-making to clerical supply chain management (SCM) units, which are more easily politicised.
• The JSR's proposed strategic procurement paradigm is defined by four elements: allowing accounting officers to develop institution-specific implementation frameworks, linking procurement to specialist delivery functions, giving professionals flexibility to tailor purchasing strategies, and shifting integrity focus from restrictive rules to enforcement.
• To prevent corruption under a more flexible strategic system, the JSR proposes five 'guardrails': alignment with Section 217 of the Constitution, clear statutory principles for measuring performance, gradual authorisation of strategic procurement based on objective standards of ability, empowering the Public Procurement Office (PPO) to prohibit undesirable practices, and enhancing transparency and whistleblowing incentives.
• The JSR argues that public procurement policy should be established through a comprehensive Act of Parliament rather than through regulations and instructions from the National Treasury or the Public Procurement Office.

APA

Klaaren, J., Brunette, R., Quinot, G., & Watermeyer, R. (2023). A Strategic Public Procurement Paradigm for South Africa. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/PPP28-06MAINfinx-1.pdf

Chicago

Klaaren, Jonathan, Ryan Brunette, Geo Quinot, and Ron Watermeyer. A Strategic Public Procurement Paradigm for South Africa. Public Affairs Research Institute, 2023. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/PPP28-06MAINfinx-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Klaaren |first1=Jonathan |last2=Brunette |first2=Ryan |last3=Quinot |first3=Geo |last4=Watermeyer |first4=Ron |title=A Strategic Public Procurement Paradigm for South Africa |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=May 2023 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/PPP28-06MAINfinx-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{klaaren2023strategic, author = {Klaaren, Jonathan and Brunette, Ryan and Quinot, Geo and Watermeyer, Ron}, title = {{A Strategic Public Procurement Paradigm for South Africa}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/PPP28-06MAINfinx-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }