"It's a pity that they made all these impulsive statements before having that meeting. What one would say (GOING FORWARD) is that before you go out making impulsive, unthought (sic) through statements, have a discussion first, understand what the other side is saying."
Well isn't that the pot calling the kettle black (black would not include Coloureds and Indians under jungle lore). Here are a few of jungle's "who gives a fuck about whether I understand what's going on I'll say it anyway"
The Black Management Forum (BMF) has condemned Futhi Mtoba's election as president of Busa. Her election was "a blow against transformation and the unity process in the South African business community and instead a victory for the interests of established business", BMF president Jimmy Manyi said.
How about we all post one in the comments. Believe me there are many. Just another one of the eternally useless president's appointments.
Happy Father's day. Kath and Oliver spoilt the hell out of me.
I've been wanting to post this song for a long time. When I first heard it I thought it was a love song - sort of working class thing. But after reading up on it and listening to it a hell of a lot I discovered it is a love song but not to a woman. It's for Ronnie Lane's father. Actually it is very apparent that it's about his father, perhaps Kath is right - I don't listen that well.
There is so much in this song that plays to the vulnerability of a young boy and how this father figure plays such an important role in their lives. From the image of the little boy sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for his father to come home to the fact that his father has so few prospects in his later life. And at all times the vulnerability remains at the core of the song. Tears all round I expect. You can sing along with track.
There are a few videos of Debris on Youtube, none with the Faces (which is my favourite version), but if there is going to be a cover version that is worth considering it would have to be by Billy Bragg.
The dti's dti.gov.za website isn't working, so I tried thedti.co.za and lo and behold. A new website and all sorts of great Robisms. The first Robism you see is the gazetting of the forgotten about ICT Charter under section 9(5). It does seem a little different to other charters and includes a section for specialised entities. There are also different weightings for the elements
Element
Weighting
Targets
Ownership
20
30%
Management
10
50%
Employment equity
10
43-80%
Skills development
17
3% (same as the dti's)
Preferential procurement
20
70% (dti's 6 year target)
Enterprise development
11
5% of NPAT
Socio-economic development initiatives
12
1.5% of NPAT
And what about the features
Lasts until 31 March 2026!!! What!!! (no it's true)
5% of NPAT for 11 points (ED) – wow what a great deal
More pages dedicated to ownership than anything else
1.5% of NPAT for 12 points under SED (with the added word – INITIATIVES). That's a better deal.
I would suggest that this is another piece of rubbish, written by people with little tolerance for sense (you know like jungle). Please protest against this thing vociferously – it reeks of ancient thought processes and ………. rubbish. You've got until the 10th of August this year.
Obed de Swardt of BEE-Matrix and I are heading up to Namibia at the end of this month. We've set up a few meetings in Windhoek but would like to meet as many people as possible. If you are a reader of this blog and are available on the 29th and 30th, please send me a mail to arrange a meeting.
Everyone probably knows about the new regulations. But not many people know what I (uppercase i) think of the regulations. In short – they're good. It evens things out for most companies and will spur on higher scores across the board. Also mere black ownership is no longer good enough – so cancel your BEE deal.
A few features
The regulations come into operation on the 7th of December, 2011 – in other words in six months' time. Considering that they apply to almost every government entity and municipalities you would need about this much time to get the message across.
The 80/20 preference point system is applicable to bids from between R30,000 and R1million. This figure is INCLUSIVE of taxes like VAT etc. This is not new (the inclusive of tax bit is new) – although a practice does seem to exist within government supply chain systems where bids up to R200k can be issued using three written quotes. Whether this practice continues or not is to be seen.
They have built in an anti-blackwashing mechanism under the local content feature.. Blackwashing is a term that I first heard Kevin Lester use and it refers to black people importing goods and selling them. As far as the purchaser is concerned they have bought goods from black people and attract point under the last bit of preferential procurement - ESKOM is reported to have been duped often by this (such were the shortfallings of the ESKADAAT). This is new and very welcomed.
There is a subcontracting clause that requires the bidder that subcontracts more than 25% of the contract to another entity (it appears to be a SINGLE entity) to ensure that the sub-contractor has a greater or equal BEE score to the primary bidder.
In certain places they actually clarify parts of the codes that are vague. For instance did you know that an accounting officer as contemplated in paragraph 4.5 of statement 000 is one that is contemplated under section 60 (1) of the CC Act.
The regulations all codes gazetted under section 9 (1) of the BEE Act.
It is very clear that only scorecards issued by SANAS or other recognised body accredited agencies.
The points system works like this
BEE level
80/20
90/10
1
20
10
2
18
9
3
16
8
4
12
5
5
8
4
6
6
3
7
4
2
8
2
1
Non-compliant
0
0
What is important to remember is that these regulations refer to PREFERENCE POINTS. In other words it is for the 20 or 10 points depending on the value of the tender. A bid cannot be rejected if a company does not submit a BEE certificate – all that happens is that the bid committee does not award preference points.
Similarly a great scorecard is not going to guarantee you the tender - it may help you win it but you still have to win as many points as possible under the 80 or 90 points.
Local content and subcontracting etc is also not considered under preference points – it falls under the "functionality" section – which is part of the price section which is the 80 or 90 points.
There are all sorts of subtleties contained in this document – which is what you can expect from Treasury. We'll be starting our training courses soon so send me an email to book.
You can find them here. I haven't looked through them (power failure all day). But the 90/10 rule is for R1m and up. And scorecards are the way to go for preference points.
At first glance these regulations are not bad. They allow for EME certificates that are not issued by verification agencies (something Coca Cola South Africa does NOT do - do you know that they are the hardest company in the country to do business with).
Long-awaited regulations on preferential procurement, designed to align the government’s procurement system with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, will be promulgated this week, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said yesterday.
The dti is getting proactive, well at least they are proactively saying that they are going to be proactive. A regulator is going to be introduced to "curtail some forms of fronting". And this is at the behest of ABVA. Now that I have paraphrased this article I'm going to cut to the chase.
Chris van Wyk, ABVA's chairman, says that the codes are too vague and as a result "fronting" might occur. Then Sidwell Medupe states that this is wrong and throws in a PW Botha-ism
“The dti would like to state categorically that the above-mentioned statement is factually incorrect. In fact our minister has previously alluded to the fact that the verification industry is partly responsible for this scourge.”
The point is made, even though it makes light of Chris' original statement. But what is the dti going to do about it? They are responsible for all aspects of BEE. They provide us with the Act, the Codes, the Charters and............................SILENCE. That's right, when it comes to the crunch the dti remains silent. This ridiculous mess with Keith Levenstein and charters is but one example. Where was the dti when the industry needed them? Out to lunch I think.
It's no real surprise that the dti has only ever focused on fronting, labeling it a scourge and vile practice and other euphemisms, because fronting is safe. You don't have to even understand fronting as well as Levenstein to talk about it. But we in the know regard the dti's silence on the vagueness of their codes (Chris van Wyk reckons there are about 102 mistakes - he can't have read the codes beyond page 40 then) as a problem. Consequently we cannot be surprised that the BEE industry (if I may call it that) has had to resort to self-regulation. In fact the last place you want to go for clarity or advice is the dti. ABVA must be congratulated for actually managing the industry as well as it has over the last few years, excluding those years when they were completely ABVAcant.
The time has come for the dti to take control, drop the fronting front and show some real leadership. My sources tell me that Nomonde is doing a great job fighting all sorts of political battles to get stuff done. Our patience is wearing thin, tell us where we can help (without mentioning fronting) and we'll get involved.
And now a little ditty for the dti (for those who don't know, Sid Vicious played bass about as well as the dti understands BEE, it's not him playing on the track)
No it ain't all me own werk - in fact I didn't write any of it. This is a somewhat brief update on the mining charter. It's worth the read. What it doesn't cover is where the charter sits at the moment. Wessel Badenhorst suggests that it is in fact law, but with the recent consultations that have been happening around the country the view is that the mining charter is in fact not in effect.
This is what Wessel says about the charter
It can be argued that the Charter is no more than a policy document containing the goals to be achieved by the mining industry in the foreseeable future. But this ignores the flavour of subordinate legislation added to the Charter – particularly in its revised form. It is accepted in certain circles that the Charter has the standing of law. The Charter itself provides that any failure to comply with its provisions will render the mining company in breach of the MPRDA.
Very often, conditions of economic empowerment of mining right holders are written into their mining rights and so become conditions thereof. Section 47 provides that where right holders breach the MPRDA or any condition of such rights, the Minister may revoke the rights.
Before the Minister may consider a revocation of rights, she must follow due process. Although one can split hairs as to whether compliance with the Charter is included in the concept of compliance with the MPRDA, it is an argument without an audience. As the issuing and renewing of rights under the MPRDA fall within the power of the Minister, and Government clearly wants to see transformation and social upliftment in the mining industry, any mining company who discounts the Charter does so at its peril.
Business Leadership SA chief executive Michael Spicer said Manyi should consider relinquishing his position as either the president of the BMF or the Cabinet spokesperson.
Spicer said: “When Manyi starts speaking, it is not clear whether he is representing government or business.
“It is highly inappropriate for a government official to influence the appointment process in an organisation like Busa,” he said.
Spicer said Manyi was conflicted. “For instance, Manyi is an architect of labour bills and business is opposed to the labour bill. When he opens his mouth, it is not clear whether Manyi is speaking as a businessman or a government official.”