SCM – Tender Discussion Forum

Dube TradePort Corporation’s SCM Division recently held an open forum for suppliers and prospective suppliers, enabling them to quiz the SCM team about processes regarding the organisation's Requests for Proposals and Requests for Quotations and Supplier Database.

The forum - a follow-up to the organisation's article (Evaluating your Tender) featured in the March issue of Dube Times - was designed to assist suppliers follow correct tender procedures into the future.

According to Dube TradePort Corporation's Senior Manger: SCM, Mr Sibusiso Mkhize: "Most of the companies which attended the meeting had never before dealt with Dube TradePort Corporation on a commercial basis. Supplier enquiries focused largely on the principles of local production and local content, as well as the processes of bid evaluations.”

In an effort to stimulate various local manufacturing sectors, the Department of Trade and Industry has put in place further designations for local production with minimum local content thresholds in terms of the public sector preferential procurement programme. This programme compels all organs of state, including state-owned entities and municipalities, to purchase certain goods which fall under the local content designation from local manufacturers who produce the goods locally and whose raw materials are produced locally.

These designations involve valves, manual and pneumatic actuators, electrical and telecommunication cables and components of solar water heaters. Sectors that have already been designated include rail rolling stock, power pylons, bus bodies, canned and processed vegetables, certain pharmaceutical products, furniture products and the textile, clothing, leather and footwear industry.

Mr Rob Davies, Minister of the Department of trade and Industry, is quoted as saying “…through the signaling project, local municipalities and state-owned enterprises procured from the domestic industry, it will secure a base load for local manufacturers. This will mean we can sustain our employment, but also then start to attack export markets and grow the industry. In the year ahead, the Department of Trade and Industry will significantly scale-up designations and other procurement policy levers in support of domestic manufacturing.”

The Department of Trade and Industry determines the threshold of local content of suppliers when submitting bids in relation to any of the items which have been designated for local production. Department of Trade and Industry-supplied certificates will then certify that such suppliers have complied with the designation criteria. Suppliers in sectors affected by the local content regulation should approach the department who will send an inspector to verify the goods and issue the required certificate accordingly.