Paul Janisch

It's the Oliver

I know there's a big thing about the Oliver Empowerment Awards.  But Kath and I have just been dumbstruck by something bigger than anything we have ever known.  Today our son Oliver Colin Hudson was born.

And today is the 29th of October 2007.  If you look at the picture you'll notice he has incredibly long and (we think) creative fingers.  Very similar to one Peter Allen Greenbaum aka Peter Green.  And the interesting thing about Green is that today is his birthday - he's 61.  It took Kath a little bit of time to get her head around the fact that her son would be born on my biggest hero's birthday.  Ever since she has known me, she has had to tolerate my never-ending passion and appreciation for this Cockney genius.

And so Oliver is born on the same day - I hope he develops the same love for Green (or at least a working tolerance) that I have.  He is going to listen to a lot of Green whilst I am still around.  This could actually push him in the opposite direction.

Rienzo figured that Oliver was named after another hero of mine, Ollie Halsall.  Actually this isn't true either.  Ollie's real name was Peter, and the name Ollie was derived from his surname, Halsall - Hallie - Ollie.

You'll notice Ollie is left-handed.  So am I, that is where our musical similarities end.

Welcome to our world Oliver.  Your parents cannot believe how precious you are and we are absolutely looking forward to having you around.

 

Tshwane, Tshwane I love you Tshwane

I was chatting to Hendri Pelser of Gauteng Business about a new policy that has been adopted (or mooted) by the Tshwane Municipality.  The significant section is 3.2.1A on page two and it refers to quotations for goods and services up to the value of R10,000.  It says

Quotations must only be obtained from vendors ......... comprising of exclusively black owned SMMEs...........

My initial reaction to this was that this is a set-aside.  Treasury  announced that set-asides may not be used in government procurement.  I blogged about this a while ago.  The directive I referred to in the blog states

The practice note is applicable to all national and provincial departments, constitutional institutions and public entities as defined in schedule 3A and 3C of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA)

So whilst the Tshwane policy is in fact a set-aside, it might not be contrary to Treasury regulations because municipalities are subject to the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).  In order to prove that this policy was counter to the Tshwane directive I would have to find the link between the two acts (PFMA and MFMA), and Hendri and I debated this at length.

Hendri then came back with an interesting document - MFMA Circular No. 29 - 31 January, 2006.  This document actually deals with set-asides but not in terms of the relationship between the MFMA and the PFMA, but in terms of their constitutionality.

Section 217 (2) of the Constitution allows for organs of state to implement a procurement policy that provides for categories of preference in the allocation of contracts and the protection or advancement of persons or categories or persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. Section 217 (3) of the Constitution makes provision for national legislation to prescribe a framework within which this policy must be implemented.

Section 217 is the reason why the PPPFA exists.  It provides for remedial activity to see the inclusion of designated groups into the economy - specifically the public sector.  This is a very fine line to tread, you can provide remedial action but not at the expense of certain race groups. 

The circular concludes with

any bid condition that will exclude certain categories of potential bidders from bidding for contracts, is unconstitutional

And if this isn't enough evidence then we should look at the  Municipal Supply Chain Management Regulations - Gazette No 27636, 30 May 2005.  Section 2 of the regulations clearly states that

Each municipality and each municipal entity must in terms of section 111 of the (MFMA) have and implement a supply chain management policy that....

• gives effect to section 217 of the Constitution
• is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective.

And if you want to know where the words "fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective" come from.  They can be found in section 217(1) of the constitution.

I suppose the only thing left to do is find some entity that is willing to challenge the Tshwane municipality in the constitutional court.  Hendri, Ryk?

Property Charter

Business Day announced this morning that the Property Charter was gazetted last Friday.   This must be  very secretive because I cannot find the gazetted charter - the last one I saw was this one.  It wasn't on the dti's site this morning and this evening the dti's website appears to be AWOL.  I can't say whether it made a section 9 or 12 gazetting.  The last draft is very similar to the December 2005 codes, so perhaps it is a section 12.

This gazetting comes simultaneously with jungle jim's "shock" announcement that all charters should be ditched for the generic codes of good practice.  Can you imagine the Financial Sector Charter being tossed - I know most of the people on that council and they have put in many years' work to get it to where it is now.

To a certain extent I swing from the same tree as jungle jim.  I have seen some charters that have allied themselves so closely to the codes that they shouldn't have bothered. But I can't see how the FSC will achieve it's targets under the codes.

Indigineration

I have gone through a re-branding process.  Whilst Caird is technically a group of companies the name "Caird Group" was becoming a little wordy.  So we are now operating simply as "Caird."

Dianna Games' column in this morning's Business Day discusses Mugabe's "Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill", which is waiting for Mugabe's signature before it becomes law.  What I found most interesting in this article was that this is not the first time this kind of principle has been implemented in Africa.  The Nigerians, under the military government of Murtala Muhammed,  introduced an Indigenisation Decree in the mid-70s. 

The decree listed three categories of ownership

• 60% foreign ownership was allowed in businesses with a high technology and skills component, notably the oil industry;
• 51% local ownership was ordered for a mid-tier of business, including banking and construction
• 100% ownership was decreed in smaller businesses such as retail.

Many multinationals, notably international banks such as Standard Chartered, Citibank and Barclays, pulled out.

The sentiment in Zimbabwe seems to be similar, not so much an economic re-alignment, but a feudal system of retaining vassals' loyalty.  Some go far as to call it "cronyism".

I suppose we should watch our own ownership regulations closely.  The 25.1% is designed to ensure a veto right over critical decisions regarding the business.  If the ownership requirements start increasing without any logical reason we should look at  Zimbabwe's  meltdown and wonder where we might be headed. 

Games sums up the concept of economic empowerment perfectly in her concluding paragraph.

A priority for most Zimbabweans right now is simply having a job. All the rest is “just grammar”, as Nigerians would say.