Government, in conjunction with industry clusters had to encourage preferential procurement in the mining industry, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) capital equipment and allied services director Tapiwa Samanga has said.

In a statement issued on Monday, he noted that government was aiming to revitalise the country’s manufacturing industry in terms of capacity and capability through the designation of certain products for local procurement.

“State procurement will be filled by locally manufactured items, while at the same time, government will encourage the private sector to use best practices in procurement,” Samanga stated.

To enable better engagement with government on these and other matters, the South African Mineral Processing Equipment Cluster (Sampec) was launched earlier this year.

“The cluster aims to help drive government policy and focus for the sector, identify opportunities and obtain government’s assistance in packaging deals. Through clustering, the value offering for customer is also increased, especially on large projects,” Sampec said in a statement.

The organisation added that it would also aim to develop the mineral processing equipment market, while simultaneously developing the members to supply the market.

Further, it would identify research and development requirements to ensure that South Africa could be ahead of the world technology curve, while also searching for larger contracts, which allowed for control over the local content.

Sampec stressed that local procurement had to form a part of the Mining Charter.

“Clustering is about maximising the collective assets and skills of a sector, while maintaining your individual intellectual property, cooperating in the value chain, yet still remaining firm competitors.

“South Africa does not have the money for the capital investment needed to gear each of the individual companies to be global players, but it could be achieved for the industry as a whole,” South African Capital Equipment Export Council MD Sybil Rhomberg explained.