The National Treasury's proposed preferential procurement regulations have too many objectives, which makes it harder to judge performance.

Public procurement is where the state meets the market. It is the mechanism through which government buys the goods, services and infrastructure it needs to govern: medicines for hospitals, textbooks for schools, pipes and pumps for water reticulation systems, vehicles for police stations, maintenance for public buildings.

If procurement works, the state has a fighting chance of delivering. If procurement fails, even the best conceived policies will disappoint.

South Africa's procurement system - estimated to be over R500-billion each year - fails far too often.

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It is slow, over-regulated, legalistic, risk-averse, corruptible and, all too frequently, incompetent.

Contracts expire without replacements. Emergency procurement becomes routine. Officials hide behind process. Suppliers overcharge. Politically connected intermediaries insert themselves between the state and the goods it needs. Projects are delayed, prices rise and citizens are left with dry taps, dark streets, broken clinics and collapsing public infrastructure.

Overloaded regulations

It is in this context that National Treasury's proposed preferential procurement regulations must be judged. Sadly, they fail on multiple counts.

The regulations ask procurement to carry too many social and economic objectives at once. Public procurement is expected not only to buy efficiently, but also to advance black ownership, women's ownership, youth participation,...