Labour federation Cosatu said it was deeply dismayed by “ill-conceived” attempts to halt the implementation of the long-awaited Public Procurement Act by the Western Cape provincial government.

This comes after Premier Alan Winde and Finance MEC Deidré Baartman wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa raising serious concerns over the constitutionality of the new law.

The provincial government wants urgent consultations to take place with provinces and municipalities on constitutional and other concerns.

The new law, which was signed by Ramaphosa last month, seeks to regulate public procurement and prescribes a single framework for implementation of preferential procurement by state organs.

In a letter to Ramaphosa, Winde and Baartman said the Constitution envisages that organs of state have the discretion to decide whether to adopt a preferential procurement policy.

They said the new law was the national government drafting policy and usurped the autonomy of organs of state instead of providing a framework.

Winde and Baartman asked that the new law not be brought into operation until their concerns had been resolved.

But Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said the new law provided the foundation for a single public procurement system across the entire state.

“There has not been a single public procurement legislative framework and consequently the situation in many state institutions is open to abuse and corruption. The existing legislative gaps were brought to the fore in 2022 when the Constitutional Court declared that Treasury lacked the legislative powers to set local content and broad-based black economic empowerment public procurement criteria,” he said.

Parks also said the Zondo Commission had heard evidence of how the leaky public procurement systems enabled widespread corruption and wasteful expenditure.

“Contrary to the misguided protests by the Western Cape provincial government, we remain concerned that the act is not sufficiently binding upon local government, where many municipalities struggle with procurement corruption.

“We, however, welcome the agreement with the sixth Parliament that this is a foundation act, and the government must return to Nedlac and Parliament within 24 months with regulations and a supplementary bill to further strengthen and enhance its provisions.”

Parks also said the National Treasury should draft regulations guiding the act’s implementation and it being rolled out across the state.

“The act will play a key role in tackling corruption and supporting local procurement and jobs,” he said.

Parks added that the new law was a massive step forward by the government to cleanse and renew the state, support local jobs and businesses, and spur the economy.

“It’s a peculiar pity the Western Cape provincial government has missed this point.”

Parks said the call by the Western Cape to delay the implementation of the new law should not be entertained.

“We hope and expect the Western Cape provincial government will play its part in ensuring that its departments and entities and the 30 municipalities across the province embrace this progressive law and ensure its full implementation.

“There are thousands of businesses and SMMEs and hundreds of thousands of workers, from the clothing factories of Salt River to the wine farms of Paarl and the canning factories of Ashton, who will benefit from the decisive implementation of this transformational law.”