JOHANNESBURG - The AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism is taking the Public Procurement Act to the Constitutional Court.
The organisation argues that Parliament rushed the legislative process and failed to ensure meaningful public participation during the drafting of the law.
It says this has resulted in legislation that is vulnerable to corruption and inadequate for reforming public procurement systems.
"The key elements for us that show that this process was unconstitutional was the lack of respect given to public participation," says AmaBhungane's Caroline James.
She says Parliament is constitutionally required not only to invite public submissions, but to genuinely consider and engage with them in shaping legislation.
"There is a chance then that the public submissions can influence the content of the legislation," says James.
"That is the aspect we believe was not created in the drafting of the Act," she says.
James says about 112 submissions were made to Parliament, but only around 40 percent were meaningfully considered. She adds that those that were reviewed were not properly engaged with.
She further claims that a new chapter on preferential procurement was introduced after the public participation process had already closed.
"The submissions looked at were not engaged with any real commitment to them," says James.