Archive for June, 2009
Update – Mbeki wants BEE scrapped
Posted by Keith in BBBEE Knowledge, General on June 26th, 2009
Whew, what a lot of responses we got to our newsletter giving our rebuttal of the comments that Moeletsi Mbeki made about asking for BEE to be scrapped.
There is a lot of anger out there, and there remains more confusion than ever about B-BBEE. Many of the comments received explained the difficult situations business people founds themselves in, due to what they considered was BEE. We have people reporting that they have been subjected to corruption, people asking for handouts, people asking for jobs for pals etc. Sadly this does happen too often. In some cases this is done in the name of BEE, but just because someone uses the words BEE, does not make it true.
Can we blame BEE for this? Can we blame BEE because British parliamentarians overclaimed on their expenses. Can we blame BEE because it is cold today or because Bafana Bafana made the semi-finals of the Confed Cup? Almost every ill that befalls our country, is almost automatically blamed on BEE, even if there is no link.
True B-BBEE is completely different to most people’s perceptions of BEE. Our mission is to try educate and ensure that government and business follows true BEE.
I do wonder why government does not do this job – why they don’t explain what BEE is really all about – instead of allowing all the misinformation to be disemminated with any comment. I know the law, the act and the codes – I have very seldom heard any government official explain it in the way we do. Why is this?
Updated list of SANAS accredited verification agencies
Posted by Keith in Accreditation, Verification on June 25th, 2009
As at: 25th June 2009 this is what SANAS is showing:
Aqrate (Pty) Ltd
Aqrate KZN (Pty) Ltd
BEE – Matrix Cc
BEE BIZ Compliance (Pty) Ltd
BEE Empowered and Labour Consultancy Cc
BEE Rating Solutions (Pty) Ltd
BEE Verification Agency CC
BEESA Rating Services (Pty) Ltd
DRGSiyaya (Pty) Ltd
Emex Trust
Empowerdex (Pty) Ltd
EmpowerLogic (Pty) Ltd
Grant Thorton
Honeycomb BEE Ratings (Pty) Ltd
Integra Scores (Pty) Ltd
lquad Verification Services (Pty) Ltd
National Empowerment Rating Agency – Gauteng
Prostart Traders 24 (Pty) Ltd t/a CENFED BEE Verification Agency
Small Enterprises Rating Agency (Pty) Ltd
Here are the disabled people
Posted by Keith in Employment Equity, True Empowerment on June 18th, 2009
Recently I blogged about the difficulty in finding suitable disabled candidates. Coincidentally we have recently made contact with the Association for the Physically Disabled. They are doing wonderful work for disabled people.
They have a recruitment arm called Skyward Bound and do training and lectures on assimilating disabled people into mainstream enterprises (Barriers Breakers). They can assist to see if your offices are disabled friendly via accessibility assessments. For example, do you have steps or a ramp into your building, and they advise on how best to cater for disabled people.
Someone once mentioned to me that “disabled” should rather be called “differently abled”.
They have various forms of assistance they provide to disabled people, and have various enterprise development initiatives such as a repair facility for wheelchairs and a small bakery they are trying to grow.
Did you know that by employing black disabled people you could earn up to 2 points on your generic employment equity scorecard and 3 points on your generic skills development scorecard? That’s 5 points in all – it’s worhtwhile taking another look at disabled people – start off by breaking your own emotional and subjective barriers via their excellent Barrier Breakers services.
Finding the competitive edge
Posted by MPUMULO MAPHOSA in BBBEE Knowledge, Marketing on June 18th, 2009
Given the priority of staying as competitive as possible, companies need to exploit all existing opportunity channels. This requires a knowledge and understanding of possible environmental impacts on your business.
In the South African business environment, BEE compliance plays a significant role particularly to those companies dealing at a business-to-business level. Your clients will require you to produce evidence of your BEE compliance status, without which they will opt to do business with your rival.
How do you address this problem? One of the largest sources of competitiveness is a customer-needs driven approach. Identifying and satisfying your clients’ needs provides the necessary competitive edge. Therefore, getting the proper BEE documents is not a choice for those companies with such clients who require such evidence. In such a scenario, a company’s competitiveness is based to an extent on its BEE score.
Therefore, how competitive is your business without evidence of its BEE status, in a market where such evidence is held with high regard?
Ministries must work together
Posted by Keith in Enterprise Development, General, politics on June 12th, 2009
An article in the Business Report quoted the new minister of trade and industry, Rob Davies, as saying ministries must work together and specifically mentioned the need to help grow SMMEs.
It’s time for the minister to “walk the talk”. It time to talk to his colleagues in treasury, energy and those responsible for state owned enterprises to get their act in order – one single BEE code will help SMMEs, and improve BEE compliance. It time to stop making so many demands on SMMEs, like the requirement to have their BEE scorecard verified, and allow self-assessments.
The minister proudly states that regulations have been put in place in the new companies act to make compliance easier.
So they ease one area only to add red tape somewhere else!
The minister also states that government is trying to pay its SMME suppliers in 30 days. This is a big improvement over the existing situation of 3-6 months. However the enterprise development codes state that enterprise can earn BEE points by paying COD, or at least within 10 days. so once again government is setting stadnards for us, that they are not prepared to try to meet.
At least the minister is making the right noises – it’s time for him to really understand how SMMEs operate and the challenges they face and DO something.
This would be funny if it were not so serious
The new minister of energy will be talking at a seminar tomorrow. The media release published by her spokesman states:
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“9 June 2009
Members of the media are invited to cover the AMEF Seminar to be held later this week.
Date: 11 June 2009
Venue: Gallagher Estates, Midrand
Time: 08h30 to 13h00
Brief background:
The AMEF played a pivotal role in the development and final agreement by all major industry players to commit to the Liquid Fuels Empowerment Charter. This was a pioneering initiative in that it was the first charter to facilitate empowerment of historically disadvantaged individuals in any industry. The charters that followed, leading up to the creation of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) scorecard were drawn on the learning of the oil industry.
The charter was signed by all heads of all significant companies and organisations involved in the liquid fuels industry on the 2 November 2000. As the 10 year anniversary draws nearer, it is also an opportunity to reflect on the transformation journey of the industry. It is also an opportunity to identify the hurdles inhibiting progress and celebrate the successes achieved thus far.
In her speech, the Minister of Energy Ms Dipuo Peters will reflect on the current status of progress against the charter by outlining the actions that have been taken by government to comply with the charter. She will also identify areas that need extra attention to reach the November 2010 targeted date and beyond. Most importantly, the Minister will also emphasise on the need to ensure that BEE is not eroded by the current economic meltdown and further reflect on the implications for the economy as a result of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) deals.
For more information, my contact details are as follows:
Zodwa Batyashe
MLO (Minister’s Spokesperson)
Cell: 083 255 8849
E-mail: Zodwa.batyashe@dme.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Energy
9 June 2009″
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I take issue with the comment “The charters that followed, leading up to the creation of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) scorecard were drawn on the learning of the oil industry.”
On second thoughts maybe the entire codes were drawn up based on the learning of the oil industry. Maybe the architects of the codes said to themselves “Whatever the liquid fuels charter says – let’s do the opposite”, and then drew up the excellent codes of good practice.
Pity that the government does not practise their own policies!
Pity that the minister is taking credit for the B-BBEE codes when her petroleum charter is such a mess, and serves little empowerment purposes.
Pity that a company in the oil industry has to follow the act in order to get permission to operate, and then has to follow the codes of good practice in everything else it does.
And the president is trying to ensure service delivery and remove red tape. The minister of energy is not delivering by making life more complicated for business. The minister of energy is not helping transformation nor empowerment by ignoring,neglecting and almost sabotaging the broad based black economic empowerment act.
Verification Update
Posted by Gavin in Accreditation, Verification on June 10th, 2009
Notice 677 of 2009
Amendment to Notice 354 of 2009 – 5 June 2009
This notice now confirms that any certificate signed before 1 August 2009 is acceptable for a period of one year after the date of signature. After 1 August only Accredited/Pre-Assessed verification agencies certificates are acceptable.
What has happened to the sector codes?
On 14th May 2009, the dti announced that the tourism, construction and forestry sector codes had been gazetted. The dti said that the government gazette document would be published on their web site on 18th May. Subsequently the tourism sector code was published, and must now be followed by all enterprises in the tourism industry. However the construction and forestry sector codes are nowhere to be found.
Initially the dti blamed the government printer for the delay. Today is the 8th June – surely there is sufficient time to print/publish a document that has already been gazetted – if the dti is to be believed?
I can only guess that there was some fault with the construction and forestry charters, that they had to be sent back to the relevant steering committees.
If so, this will be a big disappointment. It has taken over 2 years to get the first charter into a sector code and legally binding – the tourism charter. The second and third charters would have been construction and forestry – which now seem to have problems. so there is the possibility of further delays to the charters and further excuses that enterprises will use not to comply.
As is becoming the norm, the dti is taking a really good set of legislation and sabotaging it by their own inefficiency.
Where are the disabled people?
Posted by Keith in Employment Equity, True Empowerment on June 3rd, 2009
I have clients who want to try to find positions for disabled people in their business. Strange to say it is not that easy to find CVs of candidates. We are not a recruitment agency, so I googled for disabled recruitment agencies, even SED beneficiaries that support disabled people. There are some recruitment agencies specialising in placing disabled people, but not many. I happened to find an organisation called Disabled People of South Africa , but their web site is not that user friendly and does not offer CVs of candidates. They have a “Disability Economic Empowerment Programme”. I’ll try to get more information about it.
I know that one of our clients supports the Hamlet Foundation, and employs many of their residents. Another client employs many deaf people.
I wonder if the various agencies are trying hard enough to find employment for the peole they help and support. If you know of any agencies or people let me know – we’ll try to help with advertising the candidates CVs.
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