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There’s a number that should unsettle anyone paying attention: globally, women make up 41% of the supply chain workforce, but only 11% of Chief Supply Chain Officers, says Siyabonga Gule, CEO of Beapo. Somewhere between the warehouse floor and the boardroom, over three-quarters of that representation disappears. It’s tempting to call that a pipeline problem, the slow churn of career ladders, tenure, “it just takes time.” The data says otherwise. The workforce number is real.

The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined further in August, falling from 46.8 to 45.8 points. This marked the fourth consecutive month-on-month decline and the lowest reading so far this year, signalling a weak start to the second half of 2026. Most concerning was a sharp deterioration in business activity. The index fell by 8.6 points to 40.2, its lowest level this year.

How does your organisation compare? Procurement has undergone a significant transformation over the past five years. Once largely measured by its ability to deliver cost savings and operational efficiencies, procurement is increasingly being recognised as a strategic business function that can influence growth, resilience, innovation and long-term value creation, says Debbie Tagg, CEO of SmartProcurement, as she draws insights from the Oxalys and Commerce Edge Benchmarking Survey.

The vendor you treat as a simple commodity today might just be the partner who saves your business tomorrow. Across the global market, five turbulent years brought four massive supply shocks that tested organizations to their absolute limits.

If you’ve noticed cleaner, faster, more polished tenders landing on your desk, you’re not imagining it. In this article, Lerato Sebata, CEO of ROI Group unpacks to SmartProcurement how a new wave of proposal-automation platforms now uses generative AI to read requirements, draft responses from answer libraries, and re-style content at the click of a […] AI and “Self-Writing Tenders”: Procurement’s Next Opportunity or a New Compliance Headache? Read More » How does your organisation compare?

Industry leaders to gather at the 6th Annual Sustainability Summit Africa to turn ESG commitments into measurable business outcomes Johannesburg, South Africa – For two decades, the SmartProcurement World Indaba has been at the forefront of conversations shaping procurement and supply chain management across Africa. As the Indaba celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, one message has become impossible to ignore: the future of procurement is inseparable from sustainability.

The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined from 47.3 points to 46.8 in July 2026. At first glance, this suggests a weak start to the third quarter. However, the headline decline arguably overstates the weakness in underlying manufacturing conditions. Most notably, domestic demand improved and lifted new sales orders.

Manufacturers are investing in AI, predictive analytics, and advanced threat-detection tools. But boards should ask a more important question: Are these capabilities genuinely integrated into supply-chain decision-making, or are they functioning as isolated security tools? In this article, Kgosi-e-tsile Mmusi, Head of Procurement at Alstom, explains how this distinction matters because cyber risk no longer sits neatly within the IT department.

Founders, sponsors and industry leaders gathered virtually to trace procurement’s rise from a back-office afterthought to a boardroom priority, ahead of the 20th annual SmartProcurement World Indaba in September.