Paul Janisch

Businesses that back ANC will prosper. Indeed!!!

"It is also a fact that the ANC is the only party in South Africa that has economic-and business-friendly policies. The implication of this reality is that if business wants to prosper in South Africa they have to support the ANC as their prosperity is dependent on the ANC being at the helm of South Africa’s government.

via www.bdlive.co.za

Really - that's not the way I understood the ANC at all. My understanding that it is a chronically corrupt organisation with little or no ethical or moral conscience and that the only thing business-friendly about them is looting the state coffers that business has filled with their tax monies.

But perhaps I'm wrong

Financial Services Code (FSC) Scorecard

Here is a breakdown of the various elements that make up the gazetted FSC and their scores.  Whilst there are strong similarities to the generic codes the FSC is still very financial sector orientated.  As such there are odd little references that only those in the industry would adequately understand.  As a general rule the migration from a generic codes implementation to an FSC implementation would probably not be that hard - I know that most of the bigger financial institutions have been measuring this stuff for years.  You'll also notice that the "Access to Financial Services" is incomplete,  I believe these TBCs and TBDs will be sorted out shortly.

I've read this document - so if you need someone to come in and explain it against the generic codes I would jump at the opportunity to do this for a nominal fee. 

Let's be positive this year

Yes we have a government of goons but there is hope and I'll try to be positive.  There's the FSC which will do wonders for the banks and insurers etc.  I am sure that Rob's BEE codes will be watered down substantially because they have nothing going for them.

And maybe, just maybe, Zumogoon will behave himself and come clean on everything.  

There's lots to be hopeful for.

What for are thou 2013

Happy new year to all those who are back at work.   2012 ended as the damp squib (yes that is the correct word) that we expected it to be.  The most incompetent leader South Africa has had since Union (which was in 1910) is still in charge but has attempted to gain a modicum of credibility by bringing Cyril into the fold.  Let's wait to see if he fires almost all of his cabinet on the grounds of incompetence, something that Zuma would understand intimately.

Late last year Rob decided to throw out another industry charter for us to enjoy.  The Agricultural Sector Charter is now a code of good practice.  And this was after he had forced his BEE wishlist on us that is so different to anything we've ever seen before.  He made a very telling statement at Mangaung about his proposed BEE codes - specifically the withdrawn SED code.

“On the apparent charities problems, I really hope companies do not only contribute to charities to score BEE points.” 

I've made this point before but this reinforces that fact that neither Rob, his BEE Council or any of the other people who drafted the codes did much, if any, research into the state of BEE in RSA.   Surely one of the first things you'd want to establish is whether there is a link between BEE points and contributions to charities.  You then must draw the natural conclusion that if they hadn't bothered to research something as simple as this then they didn't research much else.  Videre BUSA's conclusion in their submission (which is very good and should be read by everyone).

 Given the context, transformation objectives as translated into the Codes need to be very sensitive to what is rationally doable and achievable.  Businesses should be encouraged to support economic development and sustainability (which includes transformation) in the country. The timing and targets and measures should reflect a much higher level of consciousness of business circumstances.

We now wait and see what the new ANC is going to do with this mess.  In the interim we continue.

All the best for this year and remember - BEE is only good if it works for you.  If not - don't bother because the government doesn't care either way.