Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment: Understanding

[Sibusiso Nkosi]

BBBEE is a very misunderstood piece of legislation. There needs to be more education around the BBBEE Codes of Good Practice in order to eliminate some of the misconceptions about the legislation.

BBBEE Compliance carries a large competitive advantage for any entity which is a supplier, not only to the public sector, but to private entities as well.

[Dave A]

Sometimes that misunderstanding looks like the flag of convenience. It's not just suppliers who have got the misunderstanding; sometimes it's the procurement side as well.

Look at the stalled locomotive supply contract for Transnet. Somehow the preferred supplier who got the contract was rated as 100% black owned, and yet it turned out to be only 30%. A very convenient mistake, particularly as the chair of the tender evaluation committee had an undisclosed interest in the supplier!

[insulin]

I remember doing work once for a well-known mining group. The company I work for only has one caucasian working for them. This will explain my postings so late at night. I really have lot of work and no I don’t get overtime. Yes I sometimes work till early morning. Needless to say mines and other large companies’ only favour companies like the one I work for. Skill is not part of the system. So nothing is misunderstood in my point of view.

[Sibusiso Nkosi]

There is pressure on the accredited verification agencies to conduct proper BBBEE Audits in order to ensure that the certificates awarded are a true reflection. For that reason, experienced verification analysts are in demand.

But the industry still needs more regulation. One can't just formulate a policy, implement it and let it run on its own withou monitoring. Some "BEE Consultants" have taken controll and they are capitalising on the loop holes.