We all know that Rob is big on transformation, most of us know that he is even bigger on legislation forcing people to do things like transform; only history will tell as to whether he has a clue about what he does. Anyway, this announcement from both SANAS and the DTI has really brought Rob's ham-fisted attempts at legislating transformation to the fore. The gist of this announcement is contained in these two paragraphs
it has become mandatory for the SANAS symbol to appear on the EME certificates as there is a greater need to provide certainty to the implementers of the PPPFA Regulations on the validity of SANAS Accredited Verification Agency EME.
To give effect to these new requirements, all EME certificates, issued by SANAS accredited Verification Agencies shall be verified in line with Clause 10.1.3 (of the PPPFA Regulations) and Code Series 100 of the Verification Manual and evidence of such shall be maintained by the Verification Agencies.
The ramification of this notice is that black-owned EMEs now have to follow the same rigorous process that proving ownership requires under QSE and generic scorecards. The preamble to the 17 odd pages that cover ownership in the verification manual (by contrast, the vital element of enterprise development has only three pages of requirements) says: [I have corrected the spelling and grammar in a few places for those of us who know about this stuff]
The objectives of this methodology ARE to guide a verification agency to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence on whether:
The enterprise has complied, in all material respects, with the key measurement principles for calculating the ownership element of the B-BBEE codes of good practice and
The calculations for measuring the various types of enterprises, various types of equity instruments (including members' interests in CCs and partnership interests), voting rights and economic interest and realisation points and bonus points of the B-BBEE codes of good practice (Code 100) are correct
Ramifications equal expense.
If you are a black-owned EME and you want to use a SANAS-accredited verification agency for your EME certificate it is going to cost you more than a plain old white-owned EME? Why you may ask? Well if a verification agency has to go to such lengths to prove the black-ownership of any entity, they are going to charge you more. As a verification agency said to me recently. "If you are a black-owned EME and are not willing to come to my offices to be verified then I'll charge you QSE rates. Every other EME pays R800."
Is this the equality and transformation you envisage Rob?
Would the Black Business Council care to comment on this? Your quiescence on this rather niggly issue will surely demonstrate where your allegiances lie.
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