BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

Job hopping by Black people

Job hopping by Black people is increasingly being seen as a problem. Businesses train Black people into positions only to find that they leave the position for a new company. Understanding the reason for job hopping becomes a staff retention strategy to prevent this practice.

The primary reason driving job hopping is culture. Some company cultures do not accept Black people’s cultures and backgrounds, resulting in their being forced to assimilate Western business culture to gain access to the mainstream economy. This can be uncomfortable for a Black person. Read the rest of this entry »

Bonus points

Two bonus points are available in employment equity. The bonus points are based on what the Codes term EAR EAP stands for “economically active population“. The Codes do not provide a clear explanation on how the bonus points are to be calculated. What follows is my interpretation on how to calculate bonus points. The two points are allocated to each indicator based on the indicator’s percentage of total points available. If the management indicator meets its EAP target, the bonus points would be 2s x 2 points. If the employee indicator reaches its EAP target, then the bonus points would be ¹₂-⁽₅². x 2 points. Read the rest of this entry »

Split compliance targets

The employment equity scorecard splits the compliance targets between 0 to 5 years and 6 to 10 years. The Codes acknowledge that transformation is not going to be an overnight phenomenon and that businesses will take a while to establish Black people in relevant employment positions. They have provided moderate targets for the first five years in consideration of this. Overnight transformation strategies are unlikely to result in sustainable development.

The management indicator

The majority of points, 15, are allocated to this indicator. The management indicator is subject to the gender adjustor and full points will only be scored where 50% of the management targets for Black people are held by Black women. The targets are split. The target for 0 to 5 years is 40% of total management and the target for 6 to 10 years is 60% of total management positions that should be held by Black people. Read the rest of this entry »

Learning programmes

The indicator specifies skills development spent on learning programmes. What constitutes a learning programme? If the money is not spent on a learning programme as defined, the measured entity may not include the expense in measuring skills development contributions. Statement 401 defines a learning programme as, “any of the learning programme types described in the Learning Programme Matrix“.

The Learning Programme Matrix is provided as Annexure 400A of Statement 400. It provides a broad spectrum of training that it considers a learning programme. Any of the following may be included as measurable for QSE contributions to skills development: Read the rest of this entry »

The skills development levy was designed to force entities to invest in skills development by paying money to a SETA. This money is recoverable from that SETA when the company invests in skills development. A large majority interpreted the skills development levy as a pure tax, paid the money to the SETA and never reclaimed it. This approach results in zero return and becomes, as mentioned, a straight tax.

The objective of BEE is to stimulate growth, not to invoke taxes. If the skills development initiative is not going to result in a return for the business then it is likely to result in unsubstantial skills training. If it is unsubstantial, then the trainee is not going to be any closer to participating in the mainstream economy and the exercise lacks substance. Strictly speaking, BEE contributions that lack substance are not measurable.

An investment implies that the employee will return from training with the ability to make more money for the company than prior to the training. Whether that training entails operating a computer programme more efficiently or part-time study for a university degree is particular to each business. But it must result in a return for the company greater than the initial investment. Read the rest of this entry »

All capital expenditure, including fixed property, is included in the total measured procurement spend.

Fixed property was predominantly white owned at the effective date of the Codes. Unless fixed property is part of normal trade, buying a property is going to result in an abnormal total measured procurement spend for that year. The purchase will distort the real procurement intentions of a business, which it may perceive as being unfair. However, because procurement is only measured on an annual basis, it will not have a prolonged impact on the measured entity’s preferential procurement scorecard. Read the rest of this entry »

Targets

The targets are discussed before indicator terminology in this element because they are necessary for understanding some of the indicator terminology. Enterprise development and socio-economic development use the same methodology for calculating the target. The calculation is not clearly articulated in the Codes and is a technical calculation. Read the rest of this entry »

BEE Qualifying Contributions

Sector-specific contributions

The benefit-factor matrix refers to sector-specific contributions, which are not addressed elsewhere in Statements 700 or 807. There is a definition referring to sector-specific programmes. Although it is not clear whether there is a link between the definition and the reference to sector-specific contributions above, it would appear logical to assume so.

The origin of sector-specific contributions is from previous draft statements. The objective is that sector codes will determine sector- specific socio-economic development contributions as guidance to industry from each sector. Read the rest of this entry »

A crucial error in socio-economic development is not asking the communities what they need. One-sided decisions on contributions to beneficiaries are often counterproductive because the people may, for example, want a bridge over the stream to get to town more easily, whereas the company instead builds a school that the community cannot service with teachers. Read the rest of this entry »

The whole week hiking price of oil, nobody can stand still. We need to find out who is indeed stimulate it.

A week after failing to deflate record oil prices at a summit in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude producers and consumers will get another chance to tackle the problem at a new meeting this week.

More than 3 000 delegates, including leading corporate and political figures, are to meet at the 19th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Madrid, which runs from tomorrow to Thursday after an official opening reception yesterday.

“It’s the Olympics of the oil and gas industry,” said Pierce Riemer, the director of the WPC. Read the rest of this entry »

South African local Chinese are in the “black people” which is designed to benefit previous apartheid disadvantaged groups. Are they are fully black now? Do they really benefit all the advantages of BEE Act? According to the report this morning, Chinese are not fully black.
Johannesburg - The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) has slammed a high court ruling that defines Chinese South Africans as black and gives them the full benefits of affirmative action legislation, claiming the black economic empowerment (BEE) “cake” was too small to share. Read the rest of this entry »

If the South African government wants to see the country become successful in the global environment, it needs the backing not only of the citizens of the country, but also of all the other key stakeholders. These include investors, business people, the trade union movement, as well as all financial and socio-economic institutions. Strategic thinking, whether at national or corporate level, depends on the ability of a government or management team to create and then harness a willingness amongst people to participate in outmanoeuvring the efforts of other countries and/or companies. Read the rest of this entry »

It is important for a government to fully understand the competitive dynamics of the global environment if it is to successfully take the country and its people forward. A political leader who is able to think and act locally, but is unable to do so on a global basis, is a liability to the development of the country. Advancing a country’s interests is all about economic and social development. A government that cannot create the right kind of climate for coordinated development is failing in its duty — not only to its electorate, but also to every single stakeholder. More and more national stakeholders throughout the world’s nations are beginning to demand this from their political leaders. Scotland is a good example. It has a mature, service-dominated economy with a proud tradition in all aspects of human endeavour far beyond its size or population. Yet the Scottish business sector recently challenged the nation’s political leaders, who themselves often call for domestic firms to become more globally competitive, to raise their own standards and play a greater role in assisting the country to advance its global competitiveness.” Read the rest of this entry »

The strength of a country and/or a business organisation, and therefore the strength of its strategy, is created by its human capital. At the heart of strategic thinking lies the purpose of preserving the environment: at the macro-level, preservation of the economy, whilst, at the micro-level, preservation of the industry participants. Few firms think about this. Individual agendas focus on maximising profits and, in neo-liberal market economics, maximising shareholder value at the expense of social values. Yet contributing towards industry and economic preservation benefits a nation in the long term and gives it economic strength, as well as the wherewithal for competing on the global stage. Read the rest of this entry »

Sun Tzu’s advice to make one’s position unassailable assumes critical proportions for an emerging nation like South Africa, faced with stiff global competition not only from the well-established and First World nations of the world, but also from other developing countries. The world’s more advanced and wealthy nations are deeply entrenched in the global system, and manipulate it for their own benefit. They virtually control it, and have often come under intense criticism for practising double standards, particularly in their application of such issues as, for example, international trade.’

Other emerging nations, as well as the poorer countries of the world, also want their slice of the global pie and their share of global resources. They too possess a desire to improve the standard of living of their citizens, thereby improving their position in the global (or at least their region’s) economic rankings. For any emerging nation to successfully play the globalisation game, there are a number of strategic principles, identified by Sun Tzu, that should be followed. Read the rest of this entry »

The global challenge currently facing every single South African business organisation will test their ability and endurance at competing in the global environment. Faced with competition from global firms whose managers are used to competing at the highest level, the new breed of South African manager, which is slowly beginning to emerge, will need to be `sharper, ^,flicker and more strategically, competent than his or her predecessors, who had very little competition to contend with. To give managers any chance of success, companies are going to have to overhaul their approach to strategic thinking. Read the rest of this entry »