State-owned utility Eskom has reiterated its commitment to supporting transformation and empowerment in South Africa through its procurement.

This follows after an Eskom board member was quoted in a weekend newspaper as saying that the utility could only be saved if current procurement policies were done away with.

Eskom has reiterated that it embraces the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) and all government policies aimed at transforming the South African economy to deal with the pervasive conditions of inequality and socioeconomic imbalances as espoused in Section 217 of the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

Eskom says its board fully comprehends these imperatives and is cognisant of the challenges many South Africans continue to face in terms of playing meaningful roles and livelihoods in the mainstream of the economy.

“As and when Eskom engages global players and contractors, due cognisance is always taken to facilitate local beneficiation and the empowerment of South Africans, especially black women and the youth, who continue to be the most marginalised members of our society,” the entity says.

“As the Eskom leadership collective we place a high premium on our role as a catalyst for transformation and empowerment. Eskom continues to be the largest supporter of black-owned suppliers who are positively contributing value to the production of electricity and we promote black industrialisation as a deliberate approach to supply chain management, localisation and industrialisation in our value chain,” says chairperson Mpho Makwana. 

In the financial year ended March, Eskom highlights that it procured more than R134-billion worth of goods and services from broad-based black economic empowerment-compliant suppliers in South Africa.

This represents about 76% of Eskom’s total measured procurement spend on all contracts last year, higher than the 64.5% total measured procurement spent on black-empowered suppliers in 2021, the entity outlines.

It adds that procurement spend on black-owned and black-youth-owned suppliers rose to 47.1% this year, from 34.6% the previous year.