Petra Rees The inaugural year of South Africa’s revised B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice ends on 30th April 2016. While many businesses have implemented changes to comply with the amended codes, those corporates that haven’t face the risk of dropping one or more levels on their scorecard. Lean Enterprise Acceleration Programmes (LEAP) has developed The Business World – an online business portal aimed at assisting corporates with complying with one of the priority elements being Enterprise and Supplier Development that deals with procurement requirements from suitable suppliers.  “This is a year of change for the South African B-BBEE scorecard,” says Petra Rees, managing director of LEAP – a subsidiary of the PLP Group. Whilst the adjustments should be lauded for their transformative benefits and their long-term economic returns, the codes are more difficult to comply with and businesses will find themselves at a disadvantage if they are not properly prepared. Corporates must b...

Clarification upon clarification likely when it comes to the implementation of revised B-BBEE Codes Nhlanhla Sigasa Commenting on the recent clarification notices issued by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) relating to the now active revised B-BBEE codes, Nhlanhla Sigasa, Director at SizweNtsalubaGobodo believes that going forward even more clarification will be required. “The DTI in its clarification notice on 5 May 2015 (which was withdrawn and replaced by a clarification notice on 15 May 2015) indicated that organisations with a financial year ending on or before 30 April 2015 will be measured according to the old codes. While organisations with a financial-year ending on or after 1 May 2015 on the other hand, will be measured in terms of the amended codes.  This clarification is still noted as such in the clarification notice of 15 May 2015. “However what the DTI has failed to take into consideration here is the fact that the financial year-end and what is...

Xolani Qubeka Reviving the spirit of BEE On the eve of the application of the revised Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment legislation on 1 May and its far reaching changes expected to speed up transformation, industry players look at whether BEE achieves what it set out to, and what needs to shift to facilitate true growth and participation in the SA economy.   It has been criticised for benefitting the rich and well connected, and for excluding the previously advantaged from employment opportunities, this ultimately led to the 2007 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment legislation, and the revised legislation scheduled to come into effect next month. But is Black Economic Empowerment working? “The challenge with BEE in general is that it was designed as a compliance instrument rather than an enforcement of economic transformation, and as a result there have been many unintended consequences,” says Xolani Qubeka, secretary general of the Black Business Council. Spea...

New codes bring new B-BBEE opportunities Petra Rees When companies start their new financial year, part of their planning must involve implementing the revised B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice. The codes include priority elements with sub-minimum criteria, and if these are not met, companies will lose their achieved B-BBEE status. “We have done preliminary assessments for some of our clients and the results speak for themselves. The majority of them sit at a B-BBEE procurement level 4, and if they don’t implement the necessary changes they will drop to a level 7 or even 8. This would have a serious impact on their business,” says Petra Rees, from Lean Enterprise Acceleration Programmes (LEAP), a subsidiary of the PLP Group. “The biggest challenge for companies lies in the area of Enterprise and Supplier Development, with the procurement element forming part of that," adds Rees. If a company has a target turnover of over R50 million for the year, and they are not aligned to...