Finance Minister Tito Mboweni. Picture: GCIS
NATIONAL NEWS - The finance minister has turned to the Constitutional Court in a bid to salvage controversial legislation which lets government automatically disqualify tender hopefuls whose businesses do not meet its standards for broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE).
Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) declared the revised preferential procurement regulations then minister Pravin Gordhan promulgated in 2017 – and their provisions for race-based “pre-qualification” criteria – invalid.
This was on the back of a legal battle waged by business organisation Sakeliga (formerly AfriBusiness), which said the regulations “heralded a new era in race-based procurement”.