Expert and DA slam broad-based BEE conduct code

Published Nov 4, 2013

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Johannesburg - Less than four weeks after the gazetting of the broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) codes of good practice to much acclaim, experts have begun punching holes in them.

Paul Janisch, a BEE compliance expert, was planning a legal challenge to the codes, he said on Friday, because they were incomplete. He is a BEE consultant at Caird Consultancy, which focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises and their transformation.

The codes were presented to Parliament by the Trade and Industry Department last week.

Janisch said they did not include multinationals or non-profit organisations, and were fraught with inconsistencies and typing errors, which made them almost impossible to understand, rendering them effectively unimplementable.

He said some formulae to calculate compliance did not work; numerous requirements were unfair; and the cost of implementation and verification would make the process prohibitively expensive.

The Department of Trade and Industry had not responded by the time of going to press.

DA spokesman on trade and industry Wilmot James also lashed out at the codes, saying they would not promote redress nor decrease inequality, nor would they enhance economic growth and job creation. He said the DA supported the broad-based BEE bill passed by Parliament on the grounds that it created criminal penalties for fronting and established a BEE council, but the codes were counterproductive. - Business Report

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