# Regulatory Compliance Category > BEE and Employment Equity Forum >  Trade and Industry on revised Black Business Supplier Development Programme (BBSDP)

## I Robot

Revision of black business supplier development programme to                  increase access to technology   

3 August 2009 

The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has effected revisions to the current Black Business Supplier Development Programme (BBSDP). Minister Rob Davies approved the revised guidelines on 12 June 2009, prompting the need to step-up measures to enhance the competitiveness of local, black-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 

Accordingly, the dti announces that applications under the current programme will be accepted until 31 August 2009, after which these will be replaced with the new guidelines, to be published on the dti website, on 30 September 2009. The revised BBSDP will be effective as of 1 April 2010. 

From its inception in 2002, to date (end July 2009), the BBSDP has shown an approximate growth of 800%. A total of 6 409 enterprises have benefited from the Programme and an amount of R268 804 782 has since been disbursed. 

Amendments to the current BBSDP are primarily aimed at assisting black-owned SMEs to acquire productivity-enhancing technology. The revised guidelines further seek to enhance assistance to targeted enterprises, and in so doing, enable them to access opportunities created by the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) policies of government, and supply goods and services to the corporate sector, parastatals and government. 

In order to enable access to the revised Programme, the dti will also introduce a structured training programme for network facilitators, which will enable them to identify interventions that will contribute towards the competitiveness of local enterprises. 

Network facilitators will be eligible to apply for training and subsequently be accredited after successful completion of the training programme. The selection criteria of applicants will take into account, among other factors, experience in the BBSDP. The training for network facilitators will cover the following modules: 

* use of company assessment tools
* business writing skills
* ethics in consulting
* basic understanding of company accounts
* client and assignment management
* training on the revised BBSDP guidelines. 

For more information, contact:
Mamosa Dikeledi
Tel: 012 394 1680
Cell: 083 584 6856
E-mail: MDikeledi@thedti.gov.za 

Lillian Mofokeng
Cell: 082 888 8362
E-mail: LMofokeng@thedti.gov.za 

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
3 August 2009

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## Marq

Just for further info - a summary of the existing scheme....



> The BBSDP is a 90:10 cost-sharing grant, which offers support to black-owned enterprises in South Africa, whereby the dti contributes 90% of the cost of a project and the approved applicant 10%. The scheme provides such companies with access to business development services that assist them to improve their core competencies upgrade managerial capabilities and restructure their processes to become more competitive.


So the anc now feels the need to pump more into the scheme say for example in the IT area so that a recipient company can obtain government related work.

Maybe not a bad thing..but given the cipro it tender questions, the ethewini 2010 website debacle, the saps systems that seems to come and go, the education departments computer systems for pupils that has many questions and relate this to this story  


> Hundreds of senior managers in the public service are involved in insider trading and may have huge potential conflicts of interest, which they won't disclose.
> 
> These senior civil servants have private businesses linked to their departments in government, enabling them to feed off millions of taxpayers' funds.


It seems that this government should rather clean house before feeding these con artists some more with a scheme that can so easily be used. 

Is this just a scheme to make fat cats fatter? Why the need to enhance it? Is it not working in the real world? A growth of 800% seems reasonable doesn't it? Is BEE not enough to get the tenders out to intended parties?

We have AA - job reservation
BEE - Business/profit reservation
Graft and corruption - Political reservation
Grants of all kinds - Financial reservation
Selective property tax rates - extraction socialism scheme

And apparently apartheid is something that was stopped 15 odd years ago and there are no revenge tactics and the only disadvantaged people are those that were previous.

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