Like the reader is supposed to understand what this means! I was informed on Friday that Empowerdex has been suspended. The reason behind this suspension is on Empowerdex's homepage
We refer to the testimony of Mr. Angelo Agrizzi (“Mr. Agrizzi”), the former Chief Operations Officer of BOSASA dated 28 March 2019 at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of State Capture.
Mr. Agrizzi (alleged that the) gentlemen who did the Empowerdex rating (had) an agreement between him and BOSASA in which the said gentlemen would give a preferential rating if he got R40,000 per company.
Mr. Agrizzi stated further that the Empowerdex employee was “Mr. Andries Sebelebele” (Sebelebele), a former employee of Empowerdex, who Mr. Agrizzi gave R40,000 to for purposes of “sorting out the BEE ratings”.
Empowerdex denies this
Empowerdex has no knowledge of:-
- the agreement being referred to by Mr. Agrizzi concerning Mr. Sebelebele;
- a bribe being paid by BOSASA to Mr. Sebelebele for providing it with a preferential rating; nor
- Sebelebele soliciting a bribe from BOSASA for purposes of providing it with a preferential rating.
It's not for me to go into the merits or demerits of this case, suffice to say that SANAS insists that every rating goes through a time consuming, long winded process with every man and his doberman. If there is merit then the process would need to go through a number of people to push it through. Also I have not been very polite about Empowerdex on this blog before - I've referred to them as Empowerdexadrine, Empowerdeckchair, Empowerdextress (you get the drift). I therefore cannot comment because I have a history.
In spite of my history, I'm really sad this has happened. Empowerdex were the pioneers in this business. It was Vuyo Jack's personality that got them off the ground. They were so prevalent that the term Empowerdex could have been interchangeable with the term BEE certificate. They had offices in Sandton and were successful. I suppose many thought they were untouchable, perhaps for a long time they were.
Their problem, as with BEE Matrix, was to verify highly politicised companies. BEE Matrix made the the fatal mistake of providing BEE certificates to the guptas and they were drawn, quartered and hounded out of town. Empowerdex were mentioned by Agrizzi (who I don't think it a particularly nice person, it remains to be seen whether St Peter will allow his wide girth to pass through the pearly gates). And so the witchhunt began - whether it has merit or not.
My advice to the remaining verification agencies is stay away from Sekunjalo and affiliates, otherwise Catastrophes will close you down.
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