OPINION
become part of the scorecard. “When correctly applied, Esops have the potential to drive wealth and capacitate employees, as seen with iron-ore giant Kumba’s model,” he explained. Meanwhile, Davies lashed out at claims that the gazetted amendment bill had brought confusion over who the beneficiaries of BB-BEE were in SA. “There is no confusion regarding the beneficiaries of the BB-BEE. The gazetted B-BBEE Amendment Bill has not deviated from the original beneficiaries as defined in the BB-BEE Act and further qualified in the Codes of Good Practice,” Davies said. ‘The definition in the current B-BBEE Act of black people is a generic term which means Africans, Coloureds and Indians. The current Amendment B-BBEE Bill does not propose to change the beneficiaries of BB-BEE at all’ said Davies. Davies also dismissed the recent media reports that the Amended Bill will see companies will no longer receiving BEE grading for appointing white women and people with disabilities. Members of the public have less than 30 days to comment on the BB-BEE Amendment Bill that has been gazetted by Davies. The gazetting of the Amendment Bill is the culmination of the recommendations done by the Presidential BB-BEE Advisory Council.
general, male, female and people with disabilities. There has never been any discussion about deviating from the original beneficiaries as defined in the BB-BEE Act. Therefore, the statement should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves, and the market should not give credence to such statements’ he said. The Minister added that the proposed amendments to the BB-BEE Act are intended to achieve key strategic objectives. ‘These objectives… are to align the BB-BEE Act with other legislation impacting on BB-BEE and with the Codes; establishment of the BBBEE Commission to establish an institutional environment for monitoring and evaluating BB-BEE; provide for the regulation of the verification industry by the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors; and deal with non-compliance and circumvention by, inter alia, introducing offences and penalties’ added Davies. The Bill also introduces inclusion of specific statutory offences involving fronting and other forms of fraudulent misrepresentation of empowerment status and the specification of penalties and blacklisting of entities and/or management for those offences.
The proposed amendments to the BB-BEE Act intend to align the BB-BEE Act with other legislations impacting on BB-BEE and with the Codes.
The bill also makes provisions for empowering the Special Investigations Unit to investigate all offences involving fronting or corruption committed by both the public and private sector with regard to the application of the Act and BB-BEE Codes of Good Practice.
“These statements about the bill are misleading as BB-BEE is intended to empower black people in
Members of the Public have until February 2012 to comment on the BB-BEE Amendment Bill.
“A fulfilling part is that there are penalties for misrepresentation of BB-BEE information, as well as provision for government to cancel contracts where information provided was found to be fraudulent, especially, since there is always litigation concerning government tenders,” Ratsoma said.
Volume 2 • 2012
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