Abstract
An important role that municipalities can play in procurement is for the local
sphere to offer opportunities to realise economic equity for enterprises owned by
women and other previously disadvantaged groups. Municipal procurement can
be used to address equity concerns by opening up economic prospects for
particular categories of people. Gender mainstreaming may be achieved by the
conspicuous inclusion of enterprises that are owned and operated by women,
which often operate on the periphery of procurement. Integrating gender into
municipal procurement enables women-owned businesses to participate, benefit,
and in turn enhance gendered participation in Johannesburg’s local economic
development (LED). This article expands the conclusions from an earlier study
that was concerned with e-procurement. The article uses a qualitative analytic
approach to assess how gendered procurement for the City of Johannesburg
Metropolitan Municipality (CJMM) has not been conducted to benefit womenowned
businesses. These are compared against the municipality’s procurement
policies, procedures, and reports to highlight the gender gap in municipal
procurement. The article deduces that a gender gap persists in the CJMM’s
municipal procurement processes, which excludes women-headed businesses
from benefiting from larger contracts. The article offers suggestions for
improvement. The article recommends that future research is needed that will use
gender-disaggregated data to analyse municipal sector procurement for LED. The
article concludes with key recommendations to enhance gender equity in
municipal procurement.