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BEE act to maintain its broad focus

The cabinet discussed the possibility of increasing the target for black equity ownership of individual companies but decided to retain the 25 percent level because it was targeting “deep transformation and broad-based involvement” rather than equity ownership. Lionel October, the director-general of the Department of Trade and Industry, yesterday told the select committee on trade and international relations that it wanted to see companies implementing transformation throughout all levels of management. He stressed that the government wanted to shift the emphasis of broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) to enterprise development and procurement.

October told the committee, which was reviewing the Broad-Based BEE Act, that although legislation had been implemented making fronting illegal, the act was not punitive legislation. “If you want to stay in the stone age in South Africa you can, you just won’t benefit from government spending.” The director-general told the committee that BEE had been unevenly adopted throughout the economy. “Some sectors have been very good, others have been slow.” Finance, mining, media and telecoms had made good progress, while manufacturing, agriculture and retail were poor performers. The proposed legislation will see the introduction of a programme that will enable members of the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors to undertake verification of companies’ broad-based status.

Source: iol.co.za

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BEE act to maintain its broad focus

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