"Ahem.... further to my prior post on transformation and compliance" . I happened upon an article in the Business Report on how Woolworths has not replaced their outgoing chairman (Buddy Hawton) with a black chairman. It's not jungle jim doing the moaning this time - but his deputy Nomhle Nkumbi-Ndopu.
I'm not going to go into the finer details of this article. I'm going to concentrate on the last paragraph.
The retailer said its approach to transformation was holistic. Its goal was to become a level 4 black economic empowerment contributor by 2012 and its targets were on track.
This is compliance. They want to get to 65 odd points in five years' time. And good luck to them - getting 65 points on the generic scorecard is not easy (I do often wonder how EmpowerDex gets to its scores) and a five year game plan to achieve this is probably realistic.
The second point is what incentive does a company like Woolworths, Massmart or Pick n Pay (note the apostrophe is something of the past) to implement BEE. Admittedly they might need to supply some form of a scorecard to renew their liquor licences, especially if section 10A of the BBBEE Act is going to be implemented
Every organ of state and public entity must take into account and as far as is reasonably possible, apply any relevant code of good practice issued in terms of this Act in-
(a) determining qualification criteria for the issuing of licences, concessions or other authorisations in terms of any law;
Other than that there is no incentive to go beyond compliance. I am not going to boycott any one of those stores because their BEE score is low - I shop for convenience and for prices. And I am willing to bet anything that every one I know thinks the same.
Come on Trevor - cut us a few tax breaks and maybe we'll see Woollies going beyond simple compliance.
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