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POSITION PAPER
THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF INCLUSION
BY GARY JOSEPH
SASDC (SOUTH AFRICAN SUPPLIER DIVERSITY COUNCIL)
Transformation in South Africa is at one of its most consequential inflection points in two decades. Four policy documents sit on the table at the same time: the draft B-BBEE Code amendments, the proposed Transformation Fund, the Public Procurement Act, and the newly introduced Economic Inclusion for All Bill. Together, they will reshape how state and corporate buyers procure, how compliance is measured, and how billions of rand of public and private capital reach majority black-owned and small business hands over the next five years.
At SASDC, we believe our members deserve a clear-eyed view of what's unfolding and a confident sense of where supplier diversity fits in. That is the purpose of this paper. Our position is straightforward: Whatever the political weather, the operational reality of moving money to diverse suppliers stays the same. South Africa still needs credible certification, capable suppliers, neutral verification and effective matchmaking between buyers and producers. SASDC has spent years building exactly that infrastructure. The policy shift sharpens our purpose; it does not change it.
The Question Every Black Supplier Already Knows the Answer To
There is a question that has been sitting in the middle of South Africa's enterprise and supplier development sector for twenty years. It does not appear in annual reports. It is rarely the opening line of a transformation strategy. But every Black supplier who has been through an ESD programme has encountered it, usually in silence, usually after the training certificates have been handed out and the contract has not followed.
Read more: Round Table: From Compliance to Impact rethinking ESD
On 13 February 2026, the South African Supplier Diversity Council (SASDC), in its capacity as Secretariat of the Enterprise and Supplier Development Community of Practice, hosted a high-level Enterprise and Supplier Development Policy Stakeholder Consultation in partnership with the Department of Small Business Development at the SASDC offices in Johannesburg.
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