{"id":843405,"date":"2025-11-19T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=843405"},"modified":"2025-11-19T11:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:02:27","slug":"governments-plan-to-blacklist-companies-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/843405\/governments-plan-to-blacklist-companies-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Government’s plan to blacklist companies in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Public Works Department plans to blacklist more companies in South Africa with a new national database that will name and ban contractors and consultants from doing business with the state who fail to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, the Public Works Department blacklisted 40 contractors for corruption and non-performance, the first time in 20 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Public Works Department has blacklisted 40 contractors for corruption and non-performance this year, the first time in 20 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2002, only one company faced such action. Minister Dean Macpherson said that the department is improving its blacklisting procedures to recover misused public funds more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview, Macpherson explained that the government\u2019s new plan to blacklist failing contractors is a direct response to the frustration that South Africans have carried for years as they watch public building projects stall or collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel the anger, and I’m as frustrated as any other South African is when they see a half-built project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that every abandoned clinic or school reflects poor planning, budgets disappearing, and people not being held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, Macpherson noted that his department has had to confront the systemic failure behind these problems. \u201cWe\u2019ve sought to look at what the root causes are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A central part of the department\u2019s plan is to stop contractors who fail to deliver from simply moving to another province or government department for their next contract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cContractors cannot bounce around the country, ripping off the state, whether it be a province or nationally, and get away with it. And if you\u2019re going to do that, you\u2019re going to be blacklisted,\u201d Macpherson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macpherson described the initiative as a \u201cdecisive construction action plan\u201d that aims to professionalise public works, ring-fence budgets, and bring digital transparency into the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan also requires all professionals working on state projects to be properly qualified and registered, ensuring that \u201cwhat they say they can do, they are able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked why this overhaul took so long, Macpherson said the current administration needed time to understand the full extent of the dysfunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt takes time to see what\u2019s under the hood of the car and diagnose what needs to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals will also be targeted and listed <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

While he could not speak for past administrations, he argued that his team has now completed the research, benchmarking, and diagnosis needed to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macpherson said the government has already begun enforcing consequences. \u201cWe\u2019ve already blacklisted 40 [companies] just in the last 12 months,\u201d he noted, contrasting that with \u201cone company that was blacklisted in 22 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He insisted this shows the department \u201cmeans business\u201d. He added that it should be an honour to do business with the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s seen as an opportunity to rip off the state. So I don\u2019t care who you are or what membership card you carry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf your business doesn\u2019t perform, you will be blacklisted and you won\u2019t be able to operate anywhere,\u201d the minister warned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one challenge is that contractors often reappear under new names or shell companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macpherson said provinces themselves raised this issue, and the solution was found in Limpopo, which created a \u201crestriction committee\u201d to track individuals and companies that fail to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey get added to the restriction committee, and that then gets shared with municipalities and other spheres of the state,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All provinces will now be required to establish these committees, which will feed data into a central database managed by the Construction Industry Development Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once flagged, \u201cno arm of the state can or should do business\u201d with those individuals or firms, and Treasury will also receive the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another pillar of the overhaul is budget protection. Macpherson said incomplete projects often result from provinces moving funds midway through construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to commit to a three-year budget on a project, you can\u2019t pull that budget halfway through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macpherson noted that many stalled projects are 70 or 80% complete, but funding gets diverted because provinces face new pressures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat just can\u2019t be allowed.\u201d He added that the Auditor-General has been asked to audit not only Public Works, but also client departments that fail to pay on time or withhold allocated funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macpherson acknowledged that enforcing ring-fenced budgets will require cooperation. However, he insisted there is a broad agreement within the public works departments across provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to go back to their treasuries, I\u2019m going to go back to mine, and we\u2019re going to lobby hard to get that institutionalised.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Public Works Department plans to blacklist more companies in South Africa with a new national database that will name and ban companies that fail to deliver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":843434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[19085],"class_list":["post-843405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-department-of-public-works-and-infrastructure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843405"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843792,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843405\/revisions\/843792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}