LIMITED ACCESS TO FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES HAMPER TRANSFORMATION BY GILLIAN KLAWANSKY
PROPERTY LEVEL 4 % of target achieved
Target
Property
224,7
250,00
200,00
150,00
35,5
50,00
62,1
67,2
66,6
100,00
Black Ownership: Equity Ownership
Management and Control
Skills Development
With markedly low management control figures and high financial barriers to entry, the property sector has a long way to go in terms of meeting B-BBEE targets.
Enterprise and Supplier Development
SocioEconomic Development
While all sectors struggle with management transformation, property has the lowest score with a meagre 35.5% of target.
Even those who appoint black candidates in management positions only select those who share their ideologies, he says, and who are therefore likely to maintain the organisational culture. “That’s the nature of power – it seeks to reproduce itself throughout the economy and society. That is why we still see the dominance of white men at the high echelons of the economy.”
Monde Ndlovu, former head of advocacy and thought leadership at the Black Management Forum (BMF), which focuses on the development of managerial leadership and the advancement of socioeconomic transformation, echoes this assertion. “Business broadly understanding and embracing transformation is not something that we’ve fully seen in the country,” he says. “Companies take a minimalist approach to transformation. In other words, they fulfil the minimum requirements needed to keep their businesses open and to appease the transformation agents like the BMF and other black lobby groups.”
Thulebona Buthelezi, verification manager and CEO of Izwelisha BEE Verification Agency, expands on this theme. “Transformation in the property industry has not been easy due to the fact that it is dominated by white-owned entities, some of which have been entrenched in the industry for years,” he says. “Some companies are still trying to implement proper BEE structures that are aligned to the property sector codes.” Yet, he says, there is hope. “Many entities in the property sector are still only reaching low levels, but as time goes by the levels will increase as they adapt to changes brought by the new Codes of Good Practice.”
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