Procurement Leadership in Africa: What the Smart Procurement Leaders Awards Reveal
Africa – [May 08, 2026 ] The Smart Procurement Leaders Awards signal a meaningful shift in recognising the leaders shaping procurement across Africa. Building on years of bringing the procurement community together through industry events and forums, they reflect how the role of procurement is evolving — from an operational function to a strategic driver of business value.
For Zycus, this moment holds particular significance — not just as a sponsor, but as a partner to organisations driving this transformation across the region.
Recognition at the Smart Procurement Leaders Awards
At the recent Smart Procurement Leaders Awards, two Zycus customers were recognised for their leadership and impact:
- Stedrick Saayman, Group Procurement Director at Tiger Brands, was named African Leader of the Year— recognising his role in driving a large-scale procurement transformation grounded in governance, resilience, and enterprise-wide digital enablement.
- Belinda West, Head of Non-Trade Procurement at Woolworths South Africa, was awarded Transformation Trailblazer— recognising her leadership in repositioning procurement into a strategic business partner through operating model redesign, governance, and stakeholder alignment.
These recognitions reflect not just individual achievement, but the growing role of procurement leadership in shaping enterprise outcomes across the region.
A Defining Moment for Procurement in Africa
Across Africa, organisations are navigating a complex mix of regulatory pressures, supply chain disruptions, and the need for greater transparency and accountability. In this environment, procurement has become central to how organisations manage risk, ensure compliance, and unlock long-term value.
At Zycus, we are seeing this shift play out across our engagements in South Africa, where procurement leaders are moving beyond transactional efficiency to build structured, resilient, and digitally enabled functions.
What is becoming increasingly clear is that transformation is no longer about isolated improvements. It is about fundamentally rethinking how procurement operates — through operating models, governance frameworks, and digital foundations that support scale and consistency.
From Function to Strategic Lever
The stories recognised at this year’s awards reinforce a common theme: meaningful procurement transformation is deliberate, structured, and anchored in leadership conviction.
Rebuilding with Purpose: Tiger Brands
Under the leadership of Stedrick Saayman, Group Procurement Director at Tiger Brands, procurement underwent a significant transformation. Faced with compliance challenges, the organisation chose not to pursue incremental fixes, but to undertake a comprehensive rebuild of the function.
Tiger Brands established a unified digital procurement foundation, embedding governance, control, and visibility across the enterprise, in partnership with Zycus. This enabled a shift from reactive oversight to a more structured and proactive approach.
Importantly, this transformation was not defined by technology alone. It was led by a clear strategic intent — to restore integrity, strengthen governance, and build a procurement function capable of supporting the organisation at scale.
procurement function capable of supporting the organisation at scale. “For us, this transformation was about building resilience into procurement, ensuring that governance, visibility, and control are embedded into how we operate every day, while decisively unlocking cost efficiencies and value creation. It’s about creating a foundation we can trust and scale, one that protects the business, improves competitiveness, and sustainably lowers our cost base.” — Stedrick Saayman, Tiger Brands
Repositioning for Impact: Woolworths South Africa
While sourcing and category management capabilities existed, the function lacked a unified operating model and a clearly defined strategic role. The transformation addressed this by redesigning the operating model, introducing dedicated business partner roles aligned to key business units, and establishing a centre of excellence to support analytics, commercial decision-making, contract lifecycle management, and sourcing execution.
This transformation was further supported by the introduction of upstream procurement capabilities, helping embed structure and consistency into procurement processes, in partnership with Zycus.
“This journey was about repositioning procurement — moving from a support function to a strategic partner that is aligned to the business and able to deliver sustained value over time.”
— Belinda West, Woolworths South Africa
What These Transformations Reveal
While each journey is unique, together they reflect a broader shift underway in procurement across Africa.
First, leadership is central. Technology and process enable change, but it is leadership that defines the direction, pace, and sustainability of transformation.
Second, transformation is structural. The most impactful initiatives go beyond surface-level improvements, addressing how procurement is organised, governed, and integrated into the business.
Third, procurement is increasingly positioned as a strategic function — one that contributes not only to efficiency, but to resilience, compliance, and long-term value creation.
Zycus in South Africa: Enabling the Next Phase
As procurement continues to evolve, Zycus remains focused on supporting organisations in building structured, resilient, and future-ready procurement functions.
With a growing presence in South Africa, Zycus is partnering with enterprises to enable both foundational transformation and long-term value delivery – combining digital procurement platforms, AI-driven capabilities, and deep domain expertise to address complex procurement challenges in the region.
Looking Ahead
The recognition of leaders such as Stedrick Saayman and Belinda West is not just a celebration of individual achievement. It reflects a broader momentum — one where procurement is being redefined by leaders who are willing to rethink operating models, strengthen governance, and align procurement more closely with business strategy.
As this evolution continues, the organisations that succeed will be those that view procurement not as a support function, but as a strategic lever for growth, resilience, and transformation.
About Zycus:
Zycus is a global leader in procurement technology, helping enterprises transform procurement into a strategic business function. With a unified, AI-driven Source-to-Pay platform, Zycus enables organisations to drive efficiency, strengthen governance, and gain greater visibility and control across procurement.
Trusted by leading global enterprises, Zycus combines deep domain expertise with advanced AI capabilities — including intelligent intake, data-driven decisioning, and emerging agentic AI approaches — to support more connected, efficient, and increasingly autonomous procurement processes.
