The Localisation Support Fund has commissioned a comprehensive study assessing government's procurement of clothing, textiles, footwear and leather (CTFL) goods across national and provincial departments, state-owned enterprises and municipalities. Prepared by BMA, the study, titled “Lost Threads: The Case for Compliant CTFL Public Procurement,” draws on National Treasury's procurement datasets, cross-referenced against local-manufacturer verification registers, and supplemented with modelling to capture spend not fully reflected in standard reporting. The findings confirm that CTFL public procurement represents one of the most immediately available localisation opportunities in South Africa's manufacturing economy - larger in scale than commonly understood, and closer to being captured than is often assumed.
A Market Larger Than Standard Reporting Shows
Total government CTFL spend is estimated at approximately R7.55 billion a year, substantially higher than the R1.63 billion visible in National Treasury's own BAS dataset alone. The difference reflects spend by the South African Police Service, the South African National Defence Force, state-owned enterprises and municipalities, which is largely invisible in standard Treasury reporting and had to be modelled from employee headcounts, financial statements and other proxy data. This is, in effect, a bigger lever for local industrial development than the numbers most commonly cited suggest.
Where the Opportunity Lies
Of that R7.55 billion, only 32% could be verified as reaching compliant local manufacturers and suppliers, using registers such as the National Bargaining Council, the National Textile Bargaining Council and the dtic's exemption list. The remaining 68% flows to unconfirmed or non-local sources, not because local manufacturing capacity does not exist, but because the tools available to verify and direct spend toward it are not yet applied consistently across government. Verified local sourcing already varies considerably by department and product category, with some buyers performing well above the 32% average using the very same tools and registers available to everyone else. That variation is itself the clearest evidence that stronger outcomes are achievable at scale, not merely aspirational.
The Economics: What Closing the Gap Is Worth
Applying National Treasury's own economic multipliers, BMA's modelling shows that fully closing the current gap would be worth R5.11 billion a year in local manufacturing revenue, R7.16 billion in additional GDP, and around 51,684 direct and multiplier jobs. This could all be achieved from redirecting existing procurement budgets toward compliant local suppliers, rather than from any additional government spending. Reaching the R-CTFL Masterplan's own 60% local-content target for government procurement would nearly double local manufacturing revenue captured and support tens of thousands more direct and indirect jobs than are supported today. Each additional R1 billion redirected to compliant local procurement is estimated to support around 2,450 direct manufacturing jobs and a further 5,050 indirect jobs across the value chain.
A Regulatory Window Now Open
CTFL goods have been designated for local content preference since 2012 under the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA), but the enforcement mechanism was affected in 2022 when local content rules were removed from the PPPFA Regulations, leaving procuring entities reliant on an unverified self-declaration at bid stage. The Public Procurement Act of 2024, together with its Draft General Regulations published in April 2026, sets out a route to formally redesignate CTFL under Section 20 and restore a clear, enforceable compliance mandate. The window to act is open.
Recommendations
The study proposes five sequenced measures to close the gap:
Standardise tender requirements: make local content thresholds exclusionary in all CTFL tenders and replace or substantively supplement the SBD 6.2 self-declaration with verifiable documentation such as NBC or dtic exemption letters.
Strengthen procurement officer guidance: quarterly online training for SCM officials, multilingual practical toolkits, and clearer guidance on the distinction between a local supplier and a local manufacturer.
Link payment release to verification: a tiered model in which local content verification is a condition of payment, with SABS verification required for large or high-risk contracts and invoice-based proof of local manufacture applied for lower-value RFQs.
Rationalise SABS post-tender verification: prioritise and risk-target SABS checks rather than applying them universally, using document-based default checks in place of costly, time-consuming site visits except where suppliers are flagged.
Establish structured private sector monitoring: a formal feedback loop between industry bodies (NBC, NTBC), Proudly SA, the dtic and National Treasury, supported by monthly eTenders tracking and a public register of verified manufacturers.
None of these measures require new legislation to begin, and several, including procurement officer training, payment-linked verification, and closer monitoring, can be advanced immediately at both national and provincial level, working alongside the regulatory process rather than waiting on it.
The gap between current practice and the outcomes government has already committed to is not a matter of new policy or new capacity, it is a matter of applying the tools that already exist, consistently, across the system. The opportunity is real, immediate, and available to be captured together.
Download the full report below.