Welcome dear readers to your black economic empowerment (BEE) agony column. I will endeavour to answer your questions and queries to the best of my objective and non-cynical ability.
Confused from Lohatla writes:
Dear BEE Agony Gogo
Have you tried comparing the amendments with the original codes? The errors are many, for example the index has not been adjusted, the EME threshold has not been increased although the QSE threshold has been… effectively companies falling between 5 and 10 mill are not accounted for… the assumption is probably that they would now fall into QSE's. I have not even finished with statement 000 and there are already discrepancies in the paragraph numbering etc…
Dear Confused
Thank you so much for pointing out these discrepancies to me. Please note that it is not for the esteemed minister or his staff to be any clearer than the limited codes he, in his infinite wisdom (he is a doctor you know and they are very respected in my book) has deigned to publish. It took the last codes five years to be acceptably understood and this was purely as a result of consultants, practitioners and verification agencies interpreting the mathematical and grammatical genius that the minister's predecessor published.
Pissed off from Pofadder writes:
Dear BEE Agony Gogo
I have not had the opportunity to study in depth yet. It is really not a well drafted document and it is difficult to follow the line of the drafting.
What worries me is that he clearly states in his formal signed notice that he is also publishing the B-BBEE Technical Assistance Guidelines (TAG) as well. There is however no sign of this in the document. I think that it was left out and should be read with the proposed changes.
Dear Pissed off
Well observed. I would not worry about this, it is not for the esteemed minister to read what he signs. In fact I am not sure that literacy is a requirement to be a minister in the ANC government's cabinet – after all we can't have ministers with an education level greater than a standard three – this would upstage the president. Oh there I go again I am so old school – I mean grade 5. What we can surmise from the minister's omission is that the finer detail will also be sorely missing and it will not be for us to query this with the ministry because they have not helped us in the last five years and if there is one thing that is consistent about the DTI it's their incompetence.
Highly Fucked off NPO from Frankfort writes: (please note this letter has been abridged and edited for maximum effect)
Dear BEE Agony Gogo
I now have a bloody company wanting proof that our beneficiaries are 100% black. Why is this?
Dear Highly Fucked off NPO
Wow, it's only been four days (including a weekend) since the draft codes were published and already companies are implementing its more draconian requirements. The reason behind this is that minister, in his most infinite wisdom (he is a doctor you know) has decided that the 800,000-odd white people as well as destitute foreign nationals (of which there are a lot in this country) are to be ignored under BEE. He is essentially advocating that corporate benevolence ignores them completely, possibly resulting in their ultimate demise (wasn't this a priority of apartheid – just with other races?). You see in the past (actually the present – the new codes are still in draft format) 75% of the benefits had to go to black people directly, which allowed the balance to take care of those who are unfortunately not black.
It is too early for this kind of activity, please ask your donor to catch a fucking wake up otherwise I shall have to lump them with somewhat asleep people at the DTI.
Thank you gentle readers for your correspondence and I encourage more people to send me their comments, as usual anonymity is ensured.
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