Government was well on its way to meeting the 75% local procurement target set by President Jacob Zuma before 2019, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Wednesday.

Speaking during the debate on Zuma's state of the nation address, Davies said: "We are on target to meet this before the end of this term."

Davies defended the central theme of Zuma's speech which was "radical economic transformation".

Opposition parties, including the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance, accused Zuma of not unpacking what this type of transformation meant.

"It must mean radical transformation of the productive restructuring of our economy. It must mean the radical transformation of production relations, less conflictual, characterised... by less inequality," Davies explained.

Davies accused opposition parties and commentators of missing the point of Zuma's speech.

"Our vision and our broad directive compass is the National Development Plan," he said.

"Within that [NDP] we recognise the national growth path, the infrastructure programme and the industrial policy action plan as key components and drivers of taking us where we want to go."

The need for a beneficiation strategy was key if South Africa was to industrialise and create the jobs.

"What we need to do is move up the value chain and industrialise," Davies said.