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South Africa launches online database for suppliers

2 September 2015

Businesses that want to be on the government's supplier database can now register online; previously, they would have to fill in the forms at a head office.

The Central Supplier Database (CSD) was launched yesterday by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in East Londen, in Eastern Cape. Nene said the database served as the source of all supplier information for all spheres of government.

Centralising the government's supplier database will reduce duplication of effort and cost for both the supplier and the government, while enabling an electronic procurement process.

At the launch, supplier Aaron Mgqueto Mgqueto, who has been in the security business since 1998, said a challenge he faced when dealing with the government related to tenders. "Sometimes government goes with tenders and on those tenders they don't come back to us to inform us who has won the tender.

"Yes I was not in the tender business; I was in the private sector for a while. I just joined them last year and I found it to be a challenge," he explained.

Among the benefits of being registered on the database is that suppliers will only be required to register once when they do business with the government. They will also not be required to submit physical tax clearance and business registration certificates to organs of state.

Schalk Human, the chief director of supply chain management for ICT in the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer in the National Treasury, said that as of yesterday, suppliers could register online. It would be compulsory for government departments and state-owned enterprises to use the CSD from 1 April 2016; municipalities would be required to use it from 1 July 2016.

"The benefit for business will be that it will reduce admin significantly and it will make it easy for them to engage government," said Human.

Businesses in rural areas and those that did not have access to computers would be assisted, he added.

"We foresee support to rural suppliers happening in three ways: first in district offices, Thusong Service Centres, Small Enterprise Development Agency offices and the Post Office. They will have the functionality to assist the suppliers to register."

Source: SAnews.gov