Cape Town’s mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, has launched a legal challenge against the controversial Public Procurement Act, taking the matter to the Constitutional Court in an effort to have the legislation declared invalid.
This bold move reflects mounting concerns that the Act threatens to stifle the City’s ability to deliver essential services effectively and undermines the constitutional independence of local government.
The City of Cape Town has formally served notice of its application on Parliament and President Cyril Ramaphosa, signalling a high-stakes confrontation over the future of municipal procurement rules, as per Engineering News.
At the heart of the City’s case are several procedural and substantive complaints about how Parliament passed the Bill. Hill-Lewis argues that most provinces, seven out of nine, lacked lawful mandates to vote on the Bill in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
He also points to rushed and inadequate public consultation processes, flawed reporting, and a failure by the National Assembly to properly consider public feedback or follow required parliamentary rules, particularly regarding amendments to Chapter 4 of the Bill.
‘The Public Procurement Act has fatal flaws, especially in how Parliament handled public participation and legislative procedures,’ Hill-Lewis said. ‘But beyond the process, the Bill itself threatens to choke local governments with excessive bureaucracy.’
One of the City’s main concerns is how the new law would hamstring municipalities’ ability to act quickly. Currently, local authorities must respond urgently to crises like water shortages, sanitation breakdowns or electricity failures. The Act, however, imposes additional layers of approval and red tape, potentially slowing down these critical responses.
Adding to this, the Bill empowers provincial treasuries and a newly created national Public Procurement Office (PPO) to intervene directly in municipal contracts without proper consultation. Hill-Lewis describes this as unconstitutional interference that weakens local government autonomy and dilutes direct accountability to residents.
Cape Town also warns that municipalities would lose control over their own accredited supplier databases, which must now be integrated with a national system. This centralisation risks crippling local procurement if the national database faces technical failures.
Furthermore, the Bill restricts municipalities’ ability to deviate from procurement rules during emergencies unless approved by the PPO and opens the door to drawn-out tender disputes that could stall vital contracts.
The mayor further criticises the Bill for discouraging infrastructure investment. He highlights how the cumbersome processes mirror existing laws that have long made public-private partnerships (PPPs) impractical for local governments. Without reform, municipalities may struggle to use procurement as a tool for socioeconomic development, a constitutional mandate under Sections 151 and 152.
Hill-Lewis also flagged that around 36 parts of the Bill require new regulations, a factor that could bring hidden costs and deepen the bureaucratic burden on local authorities.
Finally, the legislation places the National Finance Minister in a regulatory role over municipalities, a power Cape Town argues contradicts the Constitution and key municipal governance laws, such as the Municipal Systems Act and Municipal Finance Management Act.
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Picture: Theo Jeptha / Gallo Images
