Opera News | 13 February 2023 As we reject legalized bribery I am one person who never believed in Black Economic EMPOWERMENT (BEE) policy, for whatever motivation in my eyes BEE is a legalized bribery in which white capital is allowed to bribe black elites for the continued plundering of our resources and license to make black people poor. Politicians were eager for access to riches and quickly got the policy approved looking back it's still what it was intended, bribery If we were to speak about true black empowered economy we should be referring to an economy that is led by black people, are producers and consumers of the goods and services and also being majority owners of capital. Once you talk of schemes in which the 94% of population are given a mere 30% of the economic ownership of business then you are structuring inequality, and giving the minority the right to continue milking the economy. After all even the 30% shares the black people were not given skills and opportunity to manage the companies. We may differ on the approach but the biggest sin we have committed is to allow thieves to continue ownership of property that is a results of stolen money, companies built on racially skewed laws that made one race to accumulate at the expense of the majority who for centuries, they were excluded and dispossessed of their land. I for one think we need ECONOMIC JUSTICE, if we were serious about ensuring black people are compensated for the hundreds of years of looting we should demand that every white company should contribute to a fund for black ownership, and cede 51% ownership to black entrepreneurs. I know that many will talk about corruption which is true but a committed society must speak of the need to settle the past, launch a program to provide skills and capital to black people at lower level than picking black elites who use their proximity to power and boardrooms to amass wealth for themselves. Today the white settlers are using these black elites and agents to manage other blacks so that the white capital can flourish undisturbed, any illusion of tilting balance of Economic power is a pipe dream without forcing Economic Justice. ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://opera.news/za/en/economy-finance/982ade37a86beecbd7001ef7c9d7416b

Chris Bishop | 13 February 2023 ‘The BEE Billionaires’, by Chris Bishop book cover. Image: Supplied / The Reading List In ‘The BEE Billionaires’, Chris Bishop hopes to answer one question: Has BEE achieved what it was set up to do, or, in the long term, will it prove more of a hindrance than a help? South Africa is in the eye of a slow-building economic storm: political upheaval, junk status, civil unrest, spiralling unemployment, State Capture and the fallout from Covid-19. There is no better time to assess the impact of one of the biggest economic experiments in Africa that began a quarter of a century ago: black economic empowerment, or BEE, the legislation-backed effort to transfer wealth to black people and to facilitate their broader participation in the economy to redress the inequalities created by apartheid. In The BEE Billionaires, veteran journalist Chris Bishop gets up close and personal with some of the biggest names in BEE. By examining their struggles and the impact of BEE on their successes, Bishop seeks to uncover the ways in which BEE as an upliftment scheme has both succeeded and failed. Because while BEE has made billionaires of some, it has ruined others and remains one of the most controversial policies born in those first heady days of democracy. Bishop is the founding editor of Forbes Africa and Billionaire Tomorrow, a former head of programming at CNBC Africa, and is the author of the bestselling book Africa’s Billionaires. Read the excerpt. The Bee Sheriff on the Trail of the Bad Guys She is supposed to be the all-powerful sheriff with the big guns, tall in the saddle, hunting down the bad guys – the frauds and the cheats – trying to sidestep their black empowerment obligations, in the interests of the people. Instead, to stretch the metaphor, she sits with precious few bullets astride a scrawny horse, limping along with a fraction of the money needed to hunt down the bandits on the dodge; struggling on the trail of the lonesome prosecution. This is the unenviable lot of Zodwa Ntuli, the current B-BBEE commissioner. As the independent regulator, it is her job to oversee compliance in the implementation of black empowerment policies in South Africa, in the face of indifference, chicanery and confusion over the rules. It is a tough job, to say the least, as she battles through penury and pandemic. ‘In 2021, the B-BBEE Commission published an eighteen-year review, delving into the figures that measure its effectiveness. What they found was a world where white males still dominate the corridors of power …’ ‘The first thing that I must say is that we actually are encouraged by the fact that there are so many B-BBEE initiatives that are being implemented in this country,’ she tells me with a whiff of optimism on a cloudy day in Pretoria, between meetings. ‘That tells us that, increasingly, more and more entities are trying to actually comply with the legislation and get the entities more transformed, and to meet their targets … even during the Covid pandemic, in 2019 and 2020, we still saw activities, we still saw ownership deals that were reported to us, because, by law, any major B-BBEE transaction – that is a transaction that is R25 million and above – is required to be reported to the B-BBEE Commission.’ Ntuli is a fairly low-profile and pragmatic civil servant. She has a ready smile and scarce biographical details on the internet but takes a professional and serious approach to a tricky and thankless job. In her position, no matter who you are, you are hardly going to be liked. Lawyers and businesspeople mutter that Ntuli is difficult to deal with and sometimes doesn’t listen. In November 2020, an editorial in the Business Day accused her of abusing her powers and going ‘rogue’ in her approach to transformation. Even Wiphold, the legendary women’s investment outfit, founded in the 1990s with the avowed intention of garnering black empowerment deals for women, had harsh words for Ntuli and the government. Louisa Mojela, a Wiphold founder, complained about the regulatory confusion around the broad-based schemes after Ntuli had questioned whether these schemes fit in with the legislation. ‘You talk to the commissioner and she says one thing. You talk to the minister and the minister says another thing,’ Mojela commented to the Sunday Times in November 2020. ‘You have a commissioner who seems to be fighting and wanting to come up with her own interpretation of this policy. Then you talk to the department and they seem to be understanding and supportive of our broad-based ownership.’ These broad-based schemes, aimed at bringing ownership and wealth to communities, were at the heart of the second issuing of the BEE codes. According to lawyer Caryn Leclercq, they can be successful, but are difficult to manage and often beset by squabbles. ‘I think they are a beautiful thing,’ she says. But, as she points out in Chapter 7, one of the main problems ‘is managing the expectations of the community’, who are unlikely to see any returns for a long time. Employee schemes in companies can be fraught for the same reason, because of having to lend workers capital, through vendor financing, to be repaid by foregoing share dividends. ‘You would have vendor finance and [the employees] would have to pay off their dividends,’ Leclercq explains. ‘That didn’t really work, because then [they] wouldn’t see dividends for ten years and you have unhappy employees, of course. I have certainly seen that, which is why they used the trickled dividend device; even though the dividends are still paying off the debt, you push some of the money through to the employees to keep them happy – show them the money, in other words.’ All part of a day’s work for the commissioner. Yet, you get the feeling Ntuli is determined to slay any dragon that threatens the future of black empowerment – especially the beast of fronting. On public platforms, she has railed against fronting, calling it fraud, thieving, rent-seeking and money-laundering. ‘It takes a very simple form, at times, a very straightforward form, where an unsuspecting black person, who is either a worker or a domestic worker [or] a gardener, is then listed as a shareholder, just for the purpose of the company looking black,’ she says. ‘But then it also [works] in a sophisticated manner, when deals are structured in such a way that even with people that are knowledgeable of these deals … the financing arrangements that are involved are such that the deal will never actually result in a transfer of that particular shareholding into black hands. Because basically the transaction is structured [in] such [a way] that the black people will never be able to repay that loan that was attached to that particular date.’ As we saw in Chapter 7, the penalties for fronting are stiff. The law has the power to imprison a director for up to ten years, fine a company up to 10 per cent of its turnover or ban it from doing business with government for up to ten years. Yet it remains stubbornly part of the black empowerment scene, undermining those schemes that are designed to really transform. Fronting schemes are structured ‘to circumvent’, says Ntuli. ‘[They] are designed in such a way that when you assess it and test it, you can clearly see that in ten years, there is no way these black people that are said to be 51 per cent black owners would be owning this stake. Because the funding arrangement is so severely restraining on the black shareholders, but also, you find that the arrangements include restrictions on the dividend flow, that maybe for the duration of that particular arrangement there would not be any dividend flow.’ Ntuli warms to her theme with further explanation: ‘When there are no dividend flows, what that means, essentially, is that the black people [who] did not even have the real funding, and were vendor-financed for the deal, will not be able to receive any income for the duration of that particular deal up until they fully repaid the loan, but then they will not be able to repay the loan because there is no dividend flow. There is no money that is coming through to them for them to service the loan. So, you find those types of deals that clearly tell you that the way it is structured, there’s absolutely no way that ownership [can be] transferred.’ The problem of fronting goes deeper, Ntuli says, in that often the appointments of black managers in companies are not what they seem. This is ‘window dressing’, when black people are appointed to what appear to be senior positions, but all the decisions are made by others within the organisation. Ntuli says this undermines the intention of the legislation, ‘because the intention is to make sure that your votes are reflective of the demographics, and that black people do participate in decision-making structures’. In 2021, the B-BBEE Commission published an eighteen-year review, delving into the figures that measure its effectiveness. What they found was a world where white males still dominate the corridors of power, and where white and Indian managers are over-represented. The picture was both encouraging and unsettling for Ntuli and her team. They found that the commission had been operating on a zero budget since 2016, with a mere 22 per cent of the approved staff complement of 113, and with scant resources for investigation into compliance. Furthermore, the war on fronting – Ntuli’s holy grail – appeared to be faltering. Of the thirty cases referred to the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), not one had been processed. There were some bright spots, however: On ownership patterns, our Annual National Status and Trends on B-BBEE Report for 2020 shows that black ownership moved from 29% in 2019 to 31%, with black women ownership up from 12% to 14%, but still low compared to the 2016 benchmark study of 32%. Closely related to this was a slight increase in management control from 39% in 2019 to 57%. The report also shows that the least transformed sectors are the property, financial and tourism sectors. In 2019 only 3.3% of the JSE listed entities were 100% black owned, fast forward to 2020, the report shows 0% … ‘What is worrying is when we regress,’ says Ntuli in our interview. ‘The question is, why are we regressing? We should be pushing towards more inclusion, as opposed to regressing … Are we becoming relaxed about it? Because even if we become relaxed, the inequality gap does not necessarily change itself; it will not dramatically change by itself. There needs to be a conscious effort to change the ownership patterns in this country and to bring inclusivity in a sense that black people must be part and parcel of this economy, and in real terms.’ Ntuli argues that the commission should be given greater administrative powers to prohibit specific practices and provide remedies. Her request has so far fallen on deaf ears. On a more positive note, the commission has issued findings on the violation of the B-BBEE Act to 505 entities, some of which have been made to pay out black shareholders who were denied economic benefits and restore participation of excluded black people. Eight of the entities have appealed and the commission is defending. ‘What we picked up is that it is how people choose to implement it – that is a problem – and not what needs to be implemented,’ explains Ntuli. ‘In those cases, where it is a problem, they are trying to create schemes that are designed to circumvent it. To make it look like they are complying when they’re not complying. The tick-box exercise of just looking for a consultant to give you the quick way of getting the points but without doing what is necessary.’ Ntuli says the regulator has also successfully concluded twenty-two alternative dispute-resolution agreements, resulting in over R100 million in compensation being paid to black shareholders. It is also pursuing the cancellation of contracts and licences of entities found to be fronting or misrepresenting. What about the accusation that those deals that do pass muster are merely for the ‘usual suspects’, the politically connected elite? Ntuli strongly denies this. ‘I would like to implore you … to go onto our website and just look at the list of the registered measured BEE transactions. Those are the transactions that we have registered since 2017. And then to look at the parties involved in those transactions and begin to see whether it is true that the majority of the people that are involved are politically connected people,’ she says. ‘In the analysis that we’ve done, more and more, the initiatives are becoming broad-based. More and more employees are [able] to get into these initiatives.’ With a mountain to climb – on the back of a scrawny horse – Ntuli could be forgiven for being downhearted. Yet, she does not appear to be so, even though she stresses in our interview that, as a civil servant, she is not allowed to give her personal views. ‘Sometimes we lament so much, on maybe the wrongs or the things that do not go right with B-BBEE,’ she says thoughtfully, ‘but I can tell you that a majority of people that are in business right now, and that are occupying positions – senior positions in the public and the private sector – they actually have the legislation to thank; certain things were made possible because government has made the framework to bring about that inclusivity. So, there are gains, but we must accept that they’re not coming as quickly as they should … But to say that there is no benefit would not be honest of us. And we do believe that we can work better; we can improve on it.’ Undoubtedly, that is what many people in the black majority want to hear, but their question is likely to be: When? ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-13-no-money-no-bullets-the-unenviable-lot-of-the-bee-sheriff/

SA Government | 13 February 2023 Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele calls for public comments on a revised MAC Charter Sector Code. The Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele has published a notice in a government gazette (Gazette number 47804 ) calling on the public and interested stakeholders to work with the Marketing and Advertising Communication (MAC) Charter Council to make oral and written inputs to review the current MAC Sector Code. The MAC Charter Council will be conducting virtual and physical public hearings to review the current Code from 20 January to 09 February 2023 in order to comply with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s (thedtic) gazetted changes to the Statement 000; Statement 300 and Statement 400 of the Amended Generic Code of Good Practice of 31 May 2019. The MAC Charter Council, which is directed towards ensuring that transformation in the sector, is promoted, monitored and reported on annually in line with the law in these sectors; Advertising and Communication practices in Media; Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC); Digital (Paid and Social); Public Relations, Out-of-Home; Experiential marketing; Content; Creative Agencies and Research companies and associations such as Black Agencies Network Association (BANA); AC(S)A, Loeries; SMARTIES; AMASA; Bookly; ADFOCUS, ASSAGAI, PRISMA and other affiliated industry awards. The MAC sector council will also ensure consumer awareness to the public on all the Marketing, Advertising and Communication developments are communicated timeously over the next four years (2023-2026). To make written and oral inputs as well as to access for information such as the MAC Sector Code, stakeholders are encouraged to visit GCIS website: www.gcis.gov.za. Enquiries: Sandile Nene. GCIS- Chief Director: Media Policy and MAC Sector Secretariat Cell: 083 712 2316 ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-mondli-gungubele-calls-public-comments-revised-mac-charter-sector-code-13-feb-2023

SA News | 13 February 2023 President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced funding initiatives for small businesses with the intention of creating jobs and growing established small businesses. Delivering the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday, the President said government plans to provide R1.4 billion to finance over 90 000 entrepreneurs. In addition, government in partnership with the SA SME Fund is working to establish a R10 billion fund to support SMME growth. “Government is looking at the possibility of providing R2.5 billion for the fund and for the balance of R7.5 billion to be raised from the private sector,” President Ramaphosa said. He was addressing a Joint Sitting of Parliament in the City Hall, Cape Town. This year, government will finalise amendments to the Businesses Act to reduce regulatory impediments for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) and co-operatives and make it easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses. He said the licensing of the PostBank would lay the foundation for the creation of a state bank that will provide financial services to SMMEs, youth- and women-owned businesses and underserved communities. “As the National Assembly considers the Postbank Amendment Bill, the Postbank is reviewing its service offerings so that it can provide a viable and affordable alternative to the commercial banks,” the President said. In an effort to address the challenge of youth unemployment, the Employment Tax Incentive has been expanded to encourage businesses to hire more young people in large numbers. “Last year I announced that we would be seeking to reduce red tape so that we can rid our country of the unnecessary bureaucracy that often holds us back. “The red tape reduction team in the Presidency under Mr Sipho Nkosi has been working with various departments to make it easier to do business. “It has taken a collaborative approach, working with departments and agencies in areas such as the mining rights system, tourism transport operator licenses, visas and work permits, early childhood development and the informal sector,” the President said. The red tape reduction team was established to improve the business environment for companies of all sizes through a dedicated capacity in the Presidency to reduce red tape. ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/government-commits-funding-smmes

Paul Janisch | 13 Feb 2023 While relatively new to South Africa, public-private partnerships have incredible potential to deliver on empowerment measures. A recent article indicated that Transnet is considering outsourcing its container corridor between Durban and Johannesburg. The proposal appears to be some sort of an interim solution with the winning bidder handing it back to Transnet in 20 years. To me this seems like a public-private partnership (PPP). It also suggests that state-owned entities (SOEs) may be softening their attitude to these partnerships. PPPs are without doubt the most effective tool the government has to achieve its Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), reconstruction and development programme and other empowerment-related goals. Yet this method of procurement is not making the most of these opportunities. The problem seems to be that the transaction advisors that are used in the early stages of the feasibility study are not suitably aware of empowerment requirements and structures that PPPs would like to achieve in the long term. The majority of these bid documents contain antiquated empowerment requirements that might deliver a narrow type of empowerment structure that ultimately benefits very few people. The empowerment criteria for PPPs are contained in Module 2 of the National Treasury PPP Practice Note of 2004. The practice note precedes the Department of Trade and Industry’s broad-based BEE codes of good practice (COGP) by about three years, but a careful reading of both the COGP and the practice note reveals that they are remarkably similar and that a standard COGP implementation will more than likely cover almost every requirement that Module 2 has laid out. Interestingly the Municipal Service Delivery and PPP Guidelines have deviated from Treasury’s module 2 and incorporated the DTI’s codes of good practice into its requirements – suggesting perhaps that the Treasury module will follow suit in the future. The stated empowerment objectives of PPPs include Increasing levels of black ownership and management Development of local skills Development of supporting entrepreneurship Creation of local jobs (directly and indirectly) It is the last three objectives that tend to be ignored in most PPPs. The management and ownership requirements are pushed to the fore and more often than not benefit people who may not reside or have any roots in the area that the PPP has targeted. It may appear that empowerment has been achieved but, without the required emphasis on local economic development, the local population might come out of this process completely neglected. Perhaps the best way to explain this process is to use an example of a PPP that we worked on in a remote area of the Eastern Cape. Case study The specific project was located in a region that was a labour sourcing area during apartheid. It is still suffering from the chronic ravages of this policy and as a result has virtually no infrastructure, with an economically active population that is mostly female with a high HIV infection rate. It stands to reason that any investment in this area must have some positive impact on the local community. Our job was to ensure that the empowerment requirements would continuously develop that local community. Using both module 2 and the DTI’s codes as a starting point we recognised that the construction phase was unlikely to employ any of the local population on a permanent basis. As such, budgets that would typically be allocated under a standard BEE scorecard were re-allocated to other areas of the scorecard that would see a greater investment in the local community. We specified that the local community (i.e. people living within a 50km radius of the target area) was to be used, because the DTI’s BEE scorecard only speaks of black people – not local people. This means that without specifying local investment it is conceivable that a company operating in this area could be fully compliant by investing in any other area. The facilities’ management scorecard built on the BEE foundations laid by the construction phase and increased the number of local people employed on a permanent basis over a ten-year period. The modifications to the scorecards were within the ambit of module 2. The single most important feature of a PPP is that the Treasury Manual insists that all empowerment requirements are made contractually binding on the winning consortium, with penalties for non-compliance. Of course this requires both the government and the private party to measure their BEE performance. If the prescribed scorecard deviates so far from a standard scorecard then there is no conventional method of measurement. Verification agencies have been mandated to measure empowerment based on either the DTI’s scorecard or a sectoral charter and do not have the legal capacity to measure any other type of scorecard that deviates from these norms. This means that an additional third party has to be contracted to measure and report on this. PPPs are still relatively new to South Africa and their efficacy is not yet fully tested. But there is little doubt that they have incredible potential to deliver on government’s empowerment measures. It is very important that these measures are carefully thought out at the early stages of any PPP, because it may be very difficult to change them ten years down the line when it is realised that they are not achieving what all stakeholders hoped they would. Proper advice at the outset mitigates this risk. Paul Janisch is a BEE consultant with wide experience in the transaction phase of a number of PPPs. ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/economy/why-bee-and-public-private-partnerships-could-work/

Bizcommunity | 13 February 2023 President Cyril Ramaphosa announced this on Thursday when he delivered the State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the City Hall in Cape Town. The Employment Tax Incentive is aimed at encouraging employers to hire young and less experienced work seekers. It reduces an employer’s cost of hiring young people through a cost-sharing mechanism with government, while leaving the wage the employee receives unaffected. The employer can claim the ETI and reduce the amount of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax payable by the amount of the total ETI calculated in respect of all qualifying employees. This incentive came into effect on 1 January 2014. “Today, our economy is larger than it was before the pandemic. Between the third quarters of 2021 and 2022, around one and a half million new jobs were created in our economy,” the President said. He noted that the Presidential Employment Stimulus has provided work and livelihood opportunities to more than one million people. “Last year, we spoke about the value of the Presidential Employment Stimulus in providing work and livelihood opportunities. The initiative has now created over one million opportunities, reaching every province and district in our country,” he said. Last week, a new cohort of 150,000 school assistants started work at more than 22,000 schools, offering dignity, hope and vital work experience to young people who were unemployed. The President announced that the Social Employment Fund is also recruiting 50,000 participants in its next phase to undertake work for the common good. Meanwhile, the revitalised National Youth Service will create a further 36,000 opportunities through non-profit and community-based organisations. The Department of Home Affairs has also appointed the first cohort of 10,000 unemployed young people to digitise more than 340 million paper-based civic records. “There are now more than three million users registered on SAYouth.mobi, a zero-rated online platform for young South Africans to access opportunities for learning and earning. “This has been done in close collaboration with the National Youth Development Agency, which continues to provide valuable assistance to young entrepreneurs and work seekers,” the President said. The President said that the Presidential Employment Stimulus is also supporting people to earn their own living. Around 140,000 small-scale farmers have received input vouchers to buy seeds, fertiliser and equipment, providing a boost for food security and agricultural reform. “This initiative has led to the cultivation of some 640,000 hectares of land. An impressive 68% of these farmers are women," President Ramaphosa said. The President said that this year, government aims to provide 250,000 more vouchers to small-scale farmers. “These are examples of the difference that government can make in people’s lives through innovation, creativity and commitment,” he said. President Ramaphosa emphasised that the most effective and sustainable way to build an economy is to equip people with the skills and know-how to drive it. “We have therefore been working to strengthen the link between the skills that we develop and the skills the workplace needs. “This year, the National Skills Fund will provide R800m to develop skills in the digital and technology sector through an innovative model that links payment for training to employment outcomes,” he said. The President reiterated government’s call to companies, departments and SOEs to remove the requirement for work experience for young people seeking entry-level positions. ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/827/235863.html

Mpho Sibanyoni | 10 February 2023 President Cyril Ramaphosa. File photo Image:GCIS The Black Business Council (BBC) has come out in support of President Cyril Ramaphosa's declaration of a state of disaster on the energy crisis. However, the council said it is sharply opposed to Ramaphosa's plan to appoint an electricity minister. "The BBC welcomes the declaration of a National State of Disaster on the Energy crises and will await more details on the matter. However, the BBC is not convinced that an appointment of a Minister of Electricity in the Presidency will contribute anything positive to the ending of loadshedding as this will just add another layer of bureaucracy on an already complicated situation," read the council's statement. The BBC's support of the state of disaster on the energy crisis comes after SowetanLIVE's sister publication Business Day reported that Business Unity SA and Business Leadership SA had raised concerns about the declaration. BBC added that it was concerned about Ramaphosa's failure to mention the broad-based black economic empowerment in his State Of the Nation Address (SONA), signals that "black person you are on your own". "The BBC is disappointed by the omission of the importance of the B-BBEE, especially as the B-BBEE Act is turning 20 years this year. This is a clear indication that government does not take economic transformation seriously. The BBC views this as “black man/woman, you are on your own," said the council. The BBC added that it was skeptical that some of Ramaphosa's Sona promises might be fulfilled. The council, however, said it would only be convinced about the announcements once they are successfully implemented. Ramaphosa in his speech undertook to deal with the electricity crisis, as well as tackling rail and ports challenges. "As we said before, time for too much talk and announcements about intentions is over. It is time for decisive action and implementation. In our considered view, the SONA has missed a call for action as the economy and job creation can not be left to hope," said the council. Ramaphosa said government will finalise the draft Public Procurement Bill to address weaknesses identified by the State Capture Commission and improve efficiency, value for money and transparency. "Our reinvigorated law enforcement agencies are taking firm action against companies and individuals alleged to have been involved in state capture," he said. The BBC said government needed to strengthen the empowerment policy. "The BBC notes the planned finalisation of the Bill and the efforts anticipated to empower women-owned enterprises and would like to emphasise that until and unless the 40% set aside for women and any other marginalised group is entrenched in the PPB, these intensions will remain a pipedream. "The BBC welcomes the announcement of the measures to deal with corruption and crime but once again, will only be convinced when those measures are implemented," it said. "The lack of sufficient funding for black and small businesses hampers the growth of the economy and job-creation and the BBC is displeased that this matter continues unattended." ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-02-10-black-business-council-backs-state-of-disaster-on-power-crisis/

Akhona Matshoba | 13 February 2023 Small businesses have been included in the president’s plans for economic recovery in the coming year. Image: Luis Tato/Bloomberg But national state of disaster declaration raises concerns around how the funds will be distributed. President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday, announced several initiatives to support the recovery of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), after the events of the last few years battered the sector. Ramaphosa revealed that government, working with the SA SME Fund, will establish a R10 billion fund aimed at supporting SMME (small, medium and micro-sized enterprise) growth. The majority of the funds are expected to come from the private sector, but the president did say that government is investigating the feasibility of contributing R2.5 billion to the fund. He also announced a plan to provide R1.4 billion in financing to the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa), which will go towards assisting 90 000 entrepreneurs. Read: SA’s SMEs face onslaughts from every direction Plans to assist businesses with their transition to alternative power generation, via the bounce-back loan scheme that government introduced in 2022 to assist businesses with their recovery from the pandemic, were also announced in Sona. While welcoming the government’s plans to support the sector, financial commentator Michelle Austin says it does little help to throw money at a problem if the economic environment does not allow for growth. She tells Moneyweb that to drive real impact, there needs to be a proper vetting of beneficiaries, to ensure that the financial support is directed to businesses that have greater growth potential. “I would say first priority needs to be given to businesses with high growth potential and that have a good, solid plan and government structures.” An entrepreneur just starting out, or a micro or even a medium-sized enterprise, won’t necessarily be able to achieve the desired impact, she says. “We should … concentrate on those high-growth potential companies or individuals who can bring about change and then further are able to invest in the infrastructure, or give back to the fund in a shorter space of time so that there is more to go around.” The funds that are set to be made available to business owners are likely to be distributed under state of disaster conditions, depending on how quickly the relevant stakeholders can get the ball rolling. State of disaster Less than a year after lifting the last national state of disaster, implemented to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the president on Thursday declared a national state of disaster to deal with the country’s electricity crisis. It is not clear how the implementation of related regulations will affect the distribution of the above-mentioned funds to businesses. Concerns have however been raised that the declaration of a state of disaster may present the perfect conditions for corrupt activity to take place, as was the case during the peak of the pandemic. For Business Unity South Africa (Busa) CEO Cas Coovadia it is also unclear how the legislation will solve the country’s electricity woes. “We welcome the concentration in this Sona on the energy crisis, however we are not convinced that declaring a state of disaster will help address the crisis,” he said in a statement on Friday. “It must be seen as a low point in the life of our society that mismanagement and lack of governance has created circumstances in which a state of disaster has to be declared.” Raymond Parsons, an economist at North-West University Business School, fears that similar misdeeds reported in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic disaster period may resurface if government doesn’t implement the necessary safeguards. “It remains important that South Africa learns the lessons around the handling of the Covid-19 crisis. Safeguards are needed to prevent corruption and the intended role of the Auditor-General is welcome. “It is also important that a national state of disaster to deal with electricity crisis be seen as a temporary solution and that an exit strategy is already being planned,” says Parsons. “Timelines must be set and enforced, with consequences if they are not met. Implementation and accountability are paramount. “To rebuild business confidence political leadership must therefore ensure that, in the aftermath of the Sona, words will be backed by credible action.” Inospace – the owner of serviced logistics parks – believes that instead of providing assistance to help small businesses to migrate from the national grid on loan terms, government should provide the financing without conditions. “Solar tax relief is better than nothing, but this won’t help small businesses survive or bounce back,” says Inospace chief operating officer Jacques Weber. “We thus call on the government to immediately provide unconditional financial assistance to SMEs whose businesses are at an enormous risk of being annihilated by unending load shedding,” says Weber. “While load shedding persists, thousands of SMEs are staring down the barrel, contemplating shedding jobs, lowering production or possibly winding up,” he adds. “The SME segment of the economy does not have the means to get off the grid through costly alternative power solutions.” ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/south-africa/r10bn-fund-for-smes-must-prioritise-businesses-with-scale/

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba | 10 February 2023 The National Skills Fund (NSF) will provide R800 million towards skills development in the digital and technology sector, through a model that links payment for training to employment outcomes. This, in an effort to strengthen the link between the skills developed and the skills the workplace needs, according to president Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa delivered his 2023 State of the Nation Address (SONA) last night, following disruptions from members of the Economic Freedom Fighters, who were ultimately kicked out of the National Assembly. The president’s address was also clouded by the major socio-economic and basic service delivery challenges the country faces, with the power crisis, high unemployment and an ailing economy at the top of citizens’ concerns. Last night, the president noted the most effective and sustainable way to build an economy is to equip people with the skills and know-how to drive it. As a result, he stated. “We reiterate our call to companies, government departments and state-owned enterprises to remove the requirement for work experience for young people seeking entry-level positions.” An entity of the Department of Higher Education and Training, the NSF provides funding for national skills development initiatives that are identified by the National Skills Development Plan 2030 as national priorities, or are related to the achievement of the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998. The NSF’s funding focus and skills development portfolio is two-pronged. First, a significant allocation of its annual and medium-term budget is aimed towards education and training initiatives such as bursaries and scholarships, learnership and skills programmes, and workplace-based learning. Secondly, NSF funding is aimed at improving the post-school, education and training system, with a focus on capacity-building, investing in skills infrastructure, research and innovation. With a rising unemployment rate, especially among young people, there is increased focus on addressing SA’s technological and skillset shortcomings by upskilling youth. One of the key findings of the South Africa ICT Talent Development White Papershows the country’s digital skills gap and demand for ICT talent continue to be inhibiting factors to the growth of the economy. Furthermore, the 2022 JCSE-IITPSA ICT Skills Survey shows South African organisations are recruiting outside the country’s borders for technologically- and digitally-skilled talent. Ramaphosa indicated that last year, government said it would place over 10 000 TVET college graduates in employment. “We have surpassed that figure and have now set a target for 2023 of 20 000 TVET to be placed in employment,” he stated. “The number of students entering artisan training in TVET colleges will be increased from 17 000 to 30 000 in the 2023 academic year.” According to Ramaphosa, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has appointed the first cohort of 10 000 unemployed young people. The young people have been employed to digitise more than 340 million paper-based civic records, with efforts to enhance their skills, as they contribute to the modernisation of citizen services. The DHA’s recruitment project is part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus programme. The president further noted there are now more than three million users registered on SAYouth.mobi, a zero-rated online platform for young South Africans to access opportunities for learning and earning. “This has been done in close collaboration with the National Youth Development Agency, which continues to provide valuable assistance to young entrepreneurs and work-seekers.” In addition, the Presidential Employment Stimulus is supporting people to earn their own living, he stated. “Around 140 000 small-scale farmers have received input vouchers to buy seeds, fertiliser and equipment, providing a boost for food security and agricultural reform. “This initiative has led to the cultivation of some 640 000 hectares of land. An impressive 68% of these farmers are women. This year, we aim to provide 250 000 more vouchers to small-scale farmers.” ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.itweb.co.za/content/LPp6VMrBLjYMDKQz

SA News | 9 February 2023 President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday announced that the country will expand its vocational education and training system to produce the skills that the country needs. According to President Ramaphosa, who was delivering the State of the Nation Address (SONA), this will be done through the implementation of the approved curriculum of the three-stream model. This year, he said government plans to finalise the Comprehensive Student Funding Model for higher education. This will be aimed at students who fall outside current National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) criteria, reaching those who are known as the “missing middle”. Access to quality education for all is the most powerful instrument we have to end poverty, the President said. He said the country needs to start with very young children, providing them with the foundation they need to write and read for meaning, to learn and develop. “It is, therefore, significant that the number of children who receive the Early Childhood Development (ECD) subsidy has more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, reaching one and a half million children.” In addition, he announced that the Department of Basic Education is streamlining the requirements for ECD centres to access support and enable thousands more to receive subsidies from government. He applauded last year’s matric pass rate of 80%, with all provinces showing improved results. The share of bachelor passes in no-fee schools improved from 55% in 2019 to 64% in 2022. This, he said, means that the performance of learners from poorer schools is steadily improving, confirming the value of the support that government provides to them. “What these results reveal is that there is a silent revolution taking place in our schools,” he said. The President reiterated that schools should be safe and allow for effective learning and teaching. In this regard, he said the Sanitation Appropriate for Education Initiative – known as SAFE – together with government’s Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative has built 55 000 appropriate toilets with resources from the public and private sectors. – SAnews.gov.za ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sa-revamp-its-vocational-training-system-produce-more-skills

Sowetan Live | 9 February 2023 The youth continue to bear the brunt of unemployment as the jobless rate among youngsters is much higher than the national average. Image:Antonio Muchave President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeated his call to companies, departments and SOEs to waive the requirement for work experience for young people seeking entry-level positions. Speaking on the government’s plans to encourage youth employment in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the employment tax incentive has been expanded to encourage businesses to hire more young people in large numbers. Other measures to address the dire unemployment numbers among those between the ages of 15 years and 24 years, Ramaphosa said that last week a new cohort of 150,000 school assistants started work at more than 22,000 schools, “offering dignity, hope and vital work experience to young people who were unemployed”. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of 2022 reported that youth aged 15-24 years and 25-34 years recorded the highest unemployment rates of 59.6% and 40.5% respectively. Other measures included the Social Employment Fund recruiting 50,000 participants in its next phase to undertake work for the common good, and the revitalised National Youth Service will create a further 36,000 opportunities through non-profit and community-based organisations. The department of home affairs has appointed the first cohort of 10,000 unemployed young people to digitise more than 340-million paper-based civic records. Ramaphosa said there were now more than three million users registered on SAYouth.mobi, a zero-rated online platform for young South Africans to access opportunities for learning and earning. “This has been done in close collaboration with the National Youth Development Agency, which continues to provide valuable assistance to young entrepreneurs and work seekers.” In addition to these, the state had surpassed its target of placing over 10,000 TVET college graduates in employment. “We have surpassed that figure and have now set a target for 2023 of 20,000 TVET to be placed in employment,” he said. ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2023-02-09-ramaphosa-calls-for-scrapping-of-work-experience-requirement-for-youth/

Donna Slater | 9 February 2023 Steinmüller Africa's current Pretoria-based 30 000 square metre facility under roof, which enables one-million productive hours each year. The company also has workshops in Sasolburg and Bethal. Steam generation and high-pressure piping solutions company Steinmüller Africa celebrated 60 years of business in Africa on November 7, 2022. The company started its presence in South Africa in 1962 with nothing but a post box, which was checked only when the company’s first MD Werner Oehler passed through South Africa en route to Australia from Germany. It was at this location that Steinmüller Africa received its first invitation to tender – an Eskom tender for its Grootvlei power station. This invitation to tender led to the company building its first African head office, just outside of the Grootvlei power station, in Mpumalanga, in the 1970s. The company has since conducted ongoing boiler and high-pressure piping maintenance at Eskom’s Arnot, Camden, Duvha, Hendrina, Matimba, Kriel, Tuthuka, Matla, Majuba, Grootvlei and Komati power stations. Industries that have benefitted from Steinmüller Africa’s progression on the continent and beyond include power generation, pulp and paper, chemical and petrochemical and mineral beneficiation. Its milestones are many and the company’s development is linked to South Africa’s industrial growth. The forerunners of this development were the building of boiler plants at Hendrina, Kriel, Duvha, Thuthuka, Majuba and Mathimba power stations from 1967 through to the early 1980s. The 1990s saw Steinmüller Africa increase its South African footprint with the Sasol rejuvenation project, the replacement of make-gas boilers at Mossgas and Iscor blast furnaces. It also expanded its African footprint by undertaking work for the Sappi mill, in Swaziland, and it conducted the refurbishment of the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) plant. The South Africa-based entity also took its footprint to Europe where it was contracted to fabricate pulverised coal-fired boilers in Iskenderun, Turkey. Between 2004 and 2010 it also undertook the return to service of mothballed plants at the Camden, Komati and Grootvlei power stations, and began fabrication of boilers and high-pressure pipework at these plants. In addition to its work for Zisco and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), Steinmüller Africa also has a footprint in Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. Steinmüller Africa human capital management executive GM Karin Kaempffer says the company’s progression has been linked to South Africa’s industrial development. “Initially – in the early to mid-1990s – our technical expertise was overseas-based and our offering to the African market was largely based on our local capabilities.” She adds that Steinmüller Africa now employs advanced engineering tools in its South Africa-based design office and has invested significantly in automated welding technologies at its fabrication facilities. “Both of these developments are aligned to our drive to improve productivity, shorten lead times and be a premier utility boiler and steam piping service provider on the African continent. Our growth and sustainability, however, has remained within the power generation and chemical sectors. “Our expertise focuses on steam generation and reticulation, with an emphasis on complex, efficient high-temperature and high-pressure steam, meaning we are capable of providing solutions across the entire utility sector, where fuel efficiency is paramount,” says Kaempffer. Steinmüller Africa, which has supported the majority of major power generation and chemical utilities in South Africa, was one of the earliest companies to undertake transformation and localisation activities in line with the broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) scorecard and has been a Level 1 contributor over the past several years. “We are proud to be a highly ethical organisation and a preferred employer in our sector. We have trained and produced a significant number of artisans and technicians for the South African industry,” she says. In addition to its BBBEE rating and local skills development, Steinmüller Africa has contributed significant funding to 24 tertiary institutions across Africa to benefit science and technology undergraduates. “We have covered a great amount of ground over the past 60 years, both geographically and on the innovation front. We look forward to another 60 years of growth, to the betterment of our company, the communities in which we work, and the industrial sectors we serve,” concludes Kaempffer. ‘Disclaimer - The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’. https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/steinmller-africa-celebrates-60-years-of-growing-its-african-business-2023-02-09