Paul Janisch

NEEEF conference in Windhoek – 26/27 September 2013

The Namibian empowerment landscape has fascinated me for the last five years or so. My interest was piqued when Hartmut Ruppel called me from Windhoek and asked me to help with a BEE issue at a mine in Namibia. Since then I've read everything I could get my hands on about TESEF and NEEEF and Namibianisation. Last week I chaired a two day conference on the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework in Windhoek. The speakers make up some of the finest minds on the subject and included both Namibian and South African speakers. The South Africans were there to specifically speak about their experiences in South Africa, the Namibians gave us an insight into NEEEF as a policy and where it's headed. Here is a very brief summary of the conference.

Day 1

Anund Mudhoo – Ministry of Finance

Anund is a Mauritian who is on a three year contract to the Ministry of Finance. He's been tasked with drafting new procurement regulations based on international standards. He proved to be a very entertaining speaker and a great start to a conference. His presentation took us through the international procurement standards and then told us what Namibia could expect. I think the final draft will look a little similar to South Africa's PPPFA. NEEEF goals could be tied to this. It's not clear whether they'll use a preference points' system. We can expect something in about February 2014.

Mihe Goamab II – Namibian Economic Society

Mihe is a much respected BEE/TESEF/NEEEF commentator in Namibia. He has a very commanding presence and put together a strong argument as to why Namibia has decided to call NEEEF "new" and "equitable". The arguments are contained in his presentation which I have attached. But the gist of his presentation focused on the competitiveness of the country and how NEEEF can enhance this competitiveness. This presentation could be delivered in any country in the world that has a sort empowerment redress process.

Felicity !Owoses-/Goagoses – Ministry of Justice

Felicity was introduced as Felicity Smith. If you are new to clicks in a language then you might also struggle pronouncing her surname – and she coached me for a good 20 minutes to get it right. Felicity's presentation focused on the legal status of NEEEF. And she concluded that the policy is just a policy and has no legislative nor corporate backing. We debated as to whether NEEEF could filter through the economy like it has in South Africa which was driven by the private sector. It doesn't appear that this will work. NEEEF needs a champion and it's lacking that champion.

Vilbard T Usiku – Employment Equity Commission

Vilbard is powerpoint phobic and so presented a paper on the history of suppressing black Namibians in the workplace. As with Mihe, Vilbard's presentation could be delivered anywhere where apartheid existed. He put forward a convincing argument as to why the Affirmative Action Act still has a while to travel.

Bob Kandetu – Trustco Group International

Here is a person who tells us that he was fired as the head of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation. His slide presentation was a single slide and he spoke for an hour on his topic. It's almost impossible to capture the essence of his presentation which was on Transparency and Good Governance. A very experienced man with a great view on the world. There was one line from his presentation that I wrote down. "The absence of integrity breeds a lack of transparency which leads to corruption." At least we know that South Africa is not alone in the corruption sphere (although they have set a very high standard for other corruptors to beat). He finished off his presentation with this paragraph.

In closing, please allow me to if only cursorily, make a remark on the very document that brings us together - NEEEF. This seems to be a good attempt at providing an overarching structure to this effect. I however find it rather loosely drafted and rough on the edges. Also, I think, that it seems to be drafted in a vacuum as it does not depart from a history of other transformational empowerment programmes such as Black Economic Empowerment, Youth Development and Empowerment, Women Development and Empowerment just to mention a few. For this reason, a contextual overview of these attempts would have been of material assistance, reflecting what did we do in the past 22 years of addressing the ill and deficiencies we set out to eradicate since independence. What are reports telling us about what worked and did not work? An opening overview would have given the reader better insight of what we are attempting to achieve and why. I thank you. (Written September, 2013).

Day 2

Kershini Govender – Nedbank South Africa.

Kersh's presence at this conference is my doing. I recommended someone from Nedbank Namibia and they obviously recommended her. The striking thing about her presentation and Nedbank's overall BEE strategy is that you can't separate BEE from the company's actual growth strategy. They are intertwined. Not only are they intertwined but they are built on a lot of serious thought and research. She made reference to a number of business strategists from Jim Collins to Kaplan & Norton and John P Kotter (who is my current favourite). The result however is a unique strategy for the South African banking environment. A fantastic presentation.

Francois Kuttel – Oceana South Africa

Francois Kuttel caught the red eye from Cape Town to Windhoek to present at the conference and then returned the same day. He is the CEO of Oceana so obviously Oceana's empowerment status is very important to him. He's perhaps most famous for going to the high court to establish what being empowered actually means. His presentation was a indepth discussion of Oceana's empowerment and most specifically how to deal with conflicting pieces of legislation – his issue is the allocation of fishing licences. His recommendation is simply to use an "easy, simple, robust way to measure your transformation".

Ashnie Muthusamy – Sun International South Africa

The similarities between Ashnie and Francois abound. Both caught the red eye and returned the same day and both have to deal with the allocation of licences. In the case of Sun International they require gambling licences in different provinces – which is a complete nightmare. We were told how each provincial division is required to submit its own BEE scorecard (a group one won't do) and that often the gambling authority wants to double check the information that was used to make up the verification certificate. They also have to be a level 2 at all times which is something they have achieved. The new codes pose a substantial threat to them because their level will drop and it's likely that the gambling authority will be somewhat unsympathetic.

Malverene Theron

Unfortunately I missed this presentation. I'll try and get some more on this

My presentations

I've attached both. The first one discusses BEE and how far it's come. We must remember that BEE in South Africa exists in spite of the government and DTI assistance or involvement. I'm convinced that it's been a remarkable success and that the cabal of concernees (read BBC and Advisory Council) have a very narrow agenda that requires BEE to look like a failure.

The second presentation uses John P Kotter's 8 reasons why a transformation process fails. Kotter is mostly concerned with corporations but the reasons can be easily incorporated into a national transformation strategy.

Conclusion

There were three conclusions

1. NEEEF is a policy and no more. There are some companies that produce NEEEF scorecards because they feel it is a competitive advantage. But without some pressure from the government nothing is going to happen.
2. A transformation policy that must apply to the whole economy needs something like preferential procurement to make it work. NEEEF assumes that government procurement will force companies to comply but all that will happen under these circumstances is that a handful of compliant companies will become agents for those that don't. And it will only be those few that do comply.
3. There is no comprehensive definition of a Previously Disadvantaged Namibian yet.

I will certainly be back in Windhoek again. Invite me to your next conference.

Download Mihe Gaomab II - CompetitivenessNEEEFPresentation2013

Download Paul Janisch - BEE and NEEEF South Africa the good and bad (26 September 2013)

Download Paul Janisch - why transformation efforts fail (26 September 2013)

Related articles

Oh the irony

Racial transformation not 'complete failure` - SAIRR

Construction BEE targets may have changed

Tiger's contorted Vodacom tangle

Thami Mazwai - The media make mountains of ANC molehills

Bram Fischer letters

Now why would Bram Fischer be of any interest to me?  You might well arsk.  It all comes back to one Tottie Krige (whose real name seems to have slipped my mind).  Tottie is somewhat famous because he was wounded at the Battle of Spioenkop and then mentioned by name in Deneys Reitz's Commando. Tottie was also Jan Smuts' personal assistant during the Boer War, Smuts ended up marrying Tottie's sister, who became affectionately known as Ouma Smuts.  Tottie had a few children one of which was Molly who married Bram Fischer.  Tottie was my great-grandfather and Molly was my grandmother Pauline's sister.  In fact I believe that I was named after Bram's son Paul who died a year before I was born.

This weekend my uncle Bernard arrived with a number of letters that belonged to Pauline.  My father, Bernard and myself were looking through these letters and found two letters sent by Bram to Pauline just after he'd been arrested and before he was sentenced.  Both are written in Afrikaans and are somewhat chatty, I doubt whether the prison censors would have allowed much else to be discussed.  Here they both are, if someone is willing to transcribe them it would be appreciated - I'll post the transcriptions up here and credit the person too. 

 

Tiger’s contorted Vodacom tangle

And so spake the Independent yesterday

One of the losing consortiums in Vodacom's R7.5 billion black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction claims that the cellphone company lied about its decision to award the stake to Thebe Investment and Royal Bafokeng Holdings. Tiger Consortium Telecommunications is demanding R100 million from Vodacom for damages it says were a result of Vodacom's misrepresentation.

It says Vodacom "failed to mention a fractional BEE allocation in or during the bidding process of the BEE stake". This, it says, is in breach of the spirit of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 and Trade and Industry's 2007 BEE code of good practice.

Before I get into the underlined section it must be said that this whole action wreaks of litigious extortion. One of the characters in the Tiger Consortium has a chequered past (read the article). I suppose the word "entitlement" looms large in this sordid affair.

But let's look at this term "spirit of BEE" as it comes up quite often. The spirit of anything is incredibly subjective. In a South African context we'd start off with the Constitution's preamble, most significantly

We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to ­

• Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
• Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
• Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
• Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.

The BEE Act is a direct result of the first and third bullet points. The preamble of the Act itself states its intention as being to

"promote the achievement of the constitutional right to equality, increase broad-based and effective participation of black people in the economy and promote a higher growth rate, increased employment and more equitable income distribution.";

And the next clue as to what the spirit can be found in the current codes (paragraph 2 of statement 000)

2.1 The fundamental principle for measuring B-BBEE compliance is that substance takes precedence over legal form.

2.2 In interpreting the provisions of the Codes any reasonable interpretation consistent with the objectives of the Act and the B-BBEE Strategy must take precedence.

The B-BBEE Strategy document deliberates the definition of black economic empowerment and concludes that the best description is (paragraph 3.2.2)

an integrated and coherent socioeconomic process that directly contributes to the economic transformation of South Africa and brings about significant increases in the numbers of black people that manage, own and control the country's economy, as well as significant decreases in income inequalities.

The spirit of BEE must therefore lie within all these documents and pieces of legislation. The spirit is not a process per se, it has to be how the process contributes to the ultimate result which must be to increase broad-based and effective participation of black people in the economy and promote a higher growth rate, increased employment and more equitable income distribution. I believe that the operational words here are

• Broad-based
• Effective participation
• Promote a higher growth rate
• Increased employment
• More equitable income distribution

It is incumbent on those alleging any act that is against the spirit of BEE to prove that any of these five requirements were not met.   When a deal is concluded with a major ANC player like Baleka Mbete (yes I know this is a mining deal – this is for illustration),  Cyril, Patrice or Khanyi for that matter the it is not hard to prove that the spirit is somewhat lacking. These types of deals don't really meet a few of the criteria and hence are not in keeping with the spirit. I can't see that meeting three out of the five is good enough, it's all or nothing.

When you view this Vodacom thing you can clearly see that you're dealing with a very unpleasant bunch of people that make a tiger look tame. However if Rob actually paid attention to what goes on around him he'd notice the black economic empowerment is in fact black economic entitlement. He could change things and add in an entitlement requirement, the Tiger consortium would then be in with a very good chance of getting that R100 million from Vodacom.

Thami Mazwai - The media make mountains of ANC molehills

There is no denying that Zuma, like other leaders in business and politics all over the world, has erred in some instances and may still err — but not deliberately. However, there is no justification for the total onslaught that appears to portray him and the African National Congress (ANC) as totally unsuitable for government. Molehills become mountains as events and instances are blown out of proportion. This is particularly disconcerting as Masibambisane addresses critical issues such as food security for deprived millions in the rural areas. Fellow South Africans in these areas live in dire poverty. In some areas, unemployment is at a staggering 80%. People go without proper meals for days on end. Do our media care a hoot about the poverty in these areas?

via www.bdlive.co.za

Mazwai is now openly advocating the ANC way. He's coming across as a bitter black man - which is actually quite pathetic, he's worth a lot more than this.

Zoomer on the other hand is worth a lot less credit than Mazwai is giving him.

It would be sad to see Mazwai sinking to Zuma's oceanic depths - he's rapidly running out of breath.

Time bomb keeps ticking for ANC - julle se fok die korporaal

It is clear that there is an element of political expediency in the manner in which both the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and Labour Relations Amendment Bill have ridden roughshod over business’s concerns — the ANC’s alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, is flexing its muscles in the knowledge that it has the party’s attention with an election a matter of months away.

But it is also becoming apparent that too many leaders in the ruling party are fundamentally antibusiness as a matter of ideological principle. The party is not anticommerce — its leaders have taken to crony capitalism with alacrity — but it believes this should be conducted largely by the state, under its control. The private sector is seen as a despicable cash cow to be milked at every opportunity. Unfortunately, that approach is not conducive to job creation, and by the time the ANC starts addressing the unemployment crisis with the urgency it deserves, it may well be too late.

via www.bdlive.co.za

The new codes are now doing the rounds and can be seen in the most polite parlours. Apparently they do not look very different to those published last year. If this is the case then this paragraph above will ring true within the DTI too.

Upcoming Rob and pony show

The DTI added that the Summit will present a good platform for the government to conduct the following activities, amongst others:

•          Unveil the amended BBBEE Act and refined BBBEE Codes of Good Practice;

•          Release the BBBEE research studies conducted by the DTI, including the follow-up on the baseline study;

•          Showcase some of the success stories on BBBEE in the past decade;

•         To facilitate and host an exhibition with the aim of show casing business opportunities, access to finance and success stories in all 9 provinces

•          To facilitate debate on the strategic direction of this country’s economic transformation policy.

•          To conduct benchmarks with other international developing countries

•          To discuss strategies of positioning BBBEE as a growth and development model for South African economy. (its role in job creation, poverty eradication, economic growth and development, SMME development)

via www.ujuh.co.za

I can only imagine how bad this thing is going to be. Will someone send them my fondest and take notes. It's at Gallagher on the 3rd and 4th of October (2013). If you want to go here are the details (I think this might be a closed invitation hence I wasn't invited)

RSVP:
SUMMIT SECRETARIAT:
Lerato Miyen
Tourvest Destination Management
P O Box 651817Benmore, 2010.
Tel: +27 11 676 3464; Fax: +27 11 884 1502
click here to register now
Email: [email protected]

 

I need an expert on WRSeta learnerships. Can anyone help?

There has been a flood of spam comments on this blog. Some of them are so beautifully written, dig this
Hi all, here every one is sharing these kinds of knowledge, therefore it's nice to read this web si
AND
Great goods from you, man. I've understand your stuff previous to and you're just too magnificent.

Engrish as she is rit. And the deluge is being controlled

Racial transformation not ‘complete failure` - SAIRR

The report suggests that turning these figures around will depend on the three Es - education, entrepreneurship, and economic growth - the only way in which real empowerment can occur, particularly for those who were disadvantaged by the racial policies of the past. Future progress may therefore come to depend less on racial policies such as Black Economic Empowerment and more on ensuring access to sound education while fostering a climate conducive to economic growth.

via www.politicsweb.co.za

This refers to a report written by the  South African Institute of Race Relations.  For those who have not yet read the DA's Economic Inclusion Green Paper, it carries a similar sentiment.  If the ANC had done only one thing properly and that was focusing on education and making it work then we'd have a fraction of the BEE and social problems we have now.  If you don't look after the basics you'll never achieve anything.  This argument is the gist of my presentation at the NEEEF conference in Namibia later this month.

A positive post about Jacob Zuma