Gauteng’s participation in national government’s Local Procurement Accord (LPA) was cardinal to the success of the campaign, Cosatu Gauteng provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile said on Thursday.

“Without the province’s support, South Africa’s LPA will not succeed, which will have various social, economic and political repercussions,” he warned at the Gauteng Department of Economic Development’s 2013 Broad-Based Black Economic-Empowerment Dialogue, in Boksburg.

Dakile’s statement was based on Gauteng’s position as the most populous province in the country, housing 23.7% of South Africa’s 52-million-strong population. Of the five-million jobs that were to be created under the New Growth Path (NGP) by 2020, Gauteng was expected to contribute 1.5-million jobs.

One of the aims of the LPA was to support this goal by setting a 75% localisation target in the procurement of goods and services in the public and private sector.

The target applies to power pylons, rolling stocks, buses, food and canning products, clothing, textiles, footwear, leather products, set-top boxes and pharmaceuticals.

The LPA was one of the outcomes of a social dialogue on the NGP. On October 31, 2011, it was signed by government, organised labour, business and community constituents.

Dakile also stated that the fate of local procurement in South Africa and the implementation of the LPA lay, in large part, in the hands of the country’s labour force, who would have to consciously shift its approach from being import-focused and take the decision to buy locally.

Further, he proposed that to contribute to driving localisation in South Africa, the State would have to intensify its fight against corruption and review its macroeconomic polices. This included electricity and port tariff polices.