Abstract
The national economy growth is reliant on the construction sector output, due to the concentration of small businesses. However, most construction SMMEs are still encountering numerous diverse challenges which, leads to poor performance that results in the failure of construction projects, despite government intervention. The objective of the study is to identify generic processes and activities for effective Supplier Development in best practice criteria. Primarily it aims to compare the framework to an existing Supplier Development programme within an SOE to realise if the existing programme best equips SMMEs and serves Supplier Development objectives it sets out to achieve and propose any improvements required. The target population for the research were professionals with a minimum of 4 years’ post-graduation experience, who were occupying middle and senior management positions and involved in the execution phase of infrastructure construction projects implemented within the SOE. The study focused on the SOE offices located in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, Richards Bay, Cape Town and Saldhana offices. An empirical study was undertaken, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches and the nonprobability purposive sampling technique. The structured questionnaire was dispersed to one hundred participants for the study. A sum of 92 questionnaires were returned, which represents 92% of the total that was distributed. The results indicate that 32.76% of the respondents stated that the SMMES had not received any form of aid from government. It is also shown that 56.90% of the respondents believe that the SMMEs lack knowledge about the existing Contractor Development Programmes, as they did not participate. The majority 33.85% of the respondents employed within the SOE, also stated that they themselves have very little knowledge about the HUBs within their organisation, while only 6.15% are well knowledgeable regarding the Enterprise Development HUBs.