PRETORIA – The Construction Sector Charter Council is opposed to any changes to the sector's code that would result in narrow-based transformation focused on ownership and effective downgrading of other elements, such as skills and enterprise development.
Draft amendments to the generic broad-based black economic empowerment codes published for public comment by the Trade and Industry Department in March, among other things, proposed that 51 percent of black-owned companies be automatically rated Level 2, and 100 percent black-firms Level 1 without considering any other elements of the scorecard.
Thabo Masombuku, the chief executive of the Construction Sector Charter Council, said this was not what the council would embrace for the construction sector because it wanted all categories of companies to do skills and enterprise development.
Masombuku said the construction sector code gazetted by the trade and industry minister last December required that certain categories of exempted micro-enterprises and black-owned qualifying small enterprises be measured on various elements, mainly skills development and preferential procurement.
“It's a policy provision we seek to retain in the construction sector because it helps build the capacity of the industry to produce the required skills,” he said.
Masombuku said the Trade and Industry Department was still considering the input from its request for public comment on the proposed amendments and had not yet made a final determination.