Paul Janisch

Caird is not closing down and is open for advice (rendering and receiving)

Further to my post yesterday on the worst of times, Ray Mahlaka penned (and Tim Cohen – although the style seems to be more like Ray's) a discussion on this 51% requirement. I mentioned that there were people that are out there that have a political and narrow agenda when it comes to non-black-owned businesses (this doesn't specifically mean white).

Although the document has been rejected, it's worth noting that the actual application documents that continue to appear on the DSBD website require applicants to specify the race, nationality and gender of employees, and the race of all the shareholders individually. These are all required fields.

It is not clear what, if anything, these requirements might mean; questions to the department about how these stipulations will be applied have gone unanswered. The somewhat vague explanations from Ntshavheni in press interviews suggest applications will be considered on a "case by case basis", suggesting that BEE and local ownership criteria might still be applied, but more surreptitiously.

And then

The question, however, is whether, in the circumstances of a crisis like Covid-19, the government should be applying its transformation policy to what is essentially a national emergency. The fact is that a huge number of small businesses, perhaps even the majority of registered businesses, are minority-owned or foreign-owned, but have high proportions of black employees. If the government does intend to try to help small business employees, this may be the wrong time to attempt to throw in its transformational goals.

The authors are correct here. This is about an economy and jobs. The fucking hue of the owner is irrelevant. As I said yesterday, we could expect this under the last retard of a president. But not with this one.

Here is my offer to you the reader.

I cannot grease wheels (mostly because I hate the incumbent administrators and I think they hate me more). What I can do is advise you on emergency BEE issues – things like affidavits. I can explain the substance over legal form rule and how to apply it. You also need to know that you no longer need a commissioner of oaths for your affidavits. We can refer you to that document.

I'll post up some links that may help you in the interim

1. Keep an eye out on the Small Business Development Ministry's page for anything that talks about help for ailing businesses. You would think that right now they would actually have something on the lockdown on it. They don't. I'll keep an eye out. http://www.dsbd.gov.za/
2. There is the SolidarityFund. Again this website is a single static page with a bank account number. It's all about raising money at the moment. I'm sure that as we get deeper into the lockdown there will be more information posted on how you can apply for help https://www.solidarityfund.co.za/
3. If you need an emergency affidavit you can get them here - http://www.thedti.gov.za/economic_empowerment/bee_codes.jsp. The specialised entities are charities and the like

I will answer your emails and help where I can. I cannot give you money, it won't be worthwhile asking for it. I'll help with advice if it is requested.

And maybe it would be nice for the Black Business Council to actually make a positive contribution to this crisis, whether it's cash or something – start a feeding scheme, (if they have they can let me know), instead of moaning about their lot all the time. Your lot is not much different to ours. The BBC's website says nothing about COVID – BUSA on the other hand…….

Please watch this video. A Capetonian's experience of COVID19

Time and symptoms

According to Dan Mace, the timeline leading up to his diagnosis was as follows:

• On the morning of 19 February 2020, Mace woke up with extreme fatigue in his apartment in Los Angeles.
• Symptoms included feeling faint when he stood up. Mace called in sick and slept the whole day.
• Mace woke up on the night of 19 February with “extreme night sweats”. He reported that his bed and blanket were drenched in sweat.
• On the morning of 20 February, Mace woke with a bad headache. He described the intensity of the headache as “alarming”. His eyes were extremely light-sensitive. Other symptoms included dizziness and light-headedness.
• On the advice of a friend to deal with what they believed to be symptoms of extreme stress from work, Mace went surfing.
• He reported feeling breathless from just putting on his wetsuit.
• On the evening of 20 February, Mace again woke up with extreme night sweats. He described it as “possibly worse than the night before”.
• With the benefit of hindsight, Mace reported that he had not realised yet that he had completely lost his sense of taste and smell. “I just hadn’t had an appetite… so I wasn’t yet fully aware of it.”
• Mace recalls that by 23 February, he had the following symptoms: pain in chest and racing heartbeat, dizziness, eyes very sensitive to light, and ears sensitive to sound, and dry cough.
• When Mace asked doctors whether he may have SARS-CoV-2, they asked him several questions including whether he had travelled to China recently. When he said no, they said there is no chance that he had the virus.
• Mace’s attending doctor agreed to have him tested for influenza, and a swab test showed that he was positive for the Influenza B virus.
• The doctor gave Mace a flu shot, ordered him to rest for five days, and warned that he might develop pneumonia.
• Mace reported that his symptoms worsened and that it became difficult to breathe. Based on the doctor’s description of the symptoms Mace may expect, he believed that he had pneumonia as a result of the flu. “I’ve never felt anything more intense than that sensation in my entire life,” Mace said.
• On 1 March, Mace woke up feeling more normal. However, when he made breakfast he realised he had no taste and no smell. He also realised that he hadn’t been able to taste or smell since he had become ill.
• Feeling better, Mace became more social. On 7 March he celebrated his birthday with friends and was able to exercise as normal.
• On 10 March, Mace flew from Los Angeles to Cape Town (via Dubai) aboard an Emirates flight.
• Upon landing in Cape Town, every passenger was screened for fever. Mace was screened and allowed to pass through the border.
• Mace explains that he was in contact with many people. He saw his family, went on a weekend away with close friends for his bachelor’s party, and attended a music festival in Cape Town.
• By 16 March, his senses of smell and taste had not returned. The following day, Mace saw reports from others infected with SARS-CoV-2 that they had also lost their senses of taste and smell.
• Mace got a note from his doctor to get tested for SARS-CoV-2 at PathCare and on 21 March he received notification that he had tested positive. He is now in self-isolation.

via www.biznews.com

 

BEE is for the good times – these AREN’T good times

Well this was the original intention, until bolshie bob was launched upon us. His commie-addled mind could not understand that you can't grow and share if there is no growth.

It wasn't a surprise that this little vignette hit the news

A day after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a nationwide shutdown and relief measures to support small businesses during the coronavirus or Covid-19 crisis, the Department of Small Business Development's website crashed for many hours.  

Without a functioning website belonging to the custodian of small businesses in SA and the limited flow of credible information, a misinformation campaign can easily find fertile ground on social media. And it did on Tuesday. 

The department was criticised on Twitter for allegedly imposing racial ownership requirements on small businesses that want financial assistance from the government to cushion the blow of the impending national shutdown that Ramaphosa declared on Monday 23 March. Ramaphosa announced the three-week shutdown, which kicks in from midnight 26 March, to contain SA's Covid-19 outbreak. Infections have passed the 500 mark. 

Various misinformation peddlers claimed the relief measures proposed by the government would only help small businesses that are at least 51% black-owned and exclude those without a favourable transformation profile.

This kind of sentiment was very common under bolshie. Once or twice he was caught off-guard, he didn't always bother reading some of the stuff he signed. You could expect this from the zoomer maladministration.

Once again Cyril has shown that we need to work together as a nation and not favour certain types of companies. BEE cannot be a consideration under the COVID19 pandemic. Preservation of jobs IS THE PRIORITY, irrespective of who owns the company.

Small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said at an inter-ministerial briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday that the purported racial requirement was "fake news".

Good one Cyril, but it does show that a number of your administrators are still operating under the zoomer banner. You can find these people and remove them – they are the thorn in your side and they are still operating.

As an aside, if they wanted 51% black owned company so that I could keep it running, I would make a huge plan and quickly. I would use the substance over form rule and transfer the shares and wait for lawyers to start operating again. In the interim I would issue an affidavit confirming that I am 51% black owned by making a cryptic reference to the substance over form rule.

A naïve assessment of the virus and what it takes to get your business through it

I am not a marketing person. When I started this blog I knew that I could write and I knew that I could post my thoughts up on a blog (I really have to thank Fred Wilson for this – he is the most prolific blogger I follow, I blog because of him). I have been asked many times whether I have gained more business from these ruminations on this piece of virtual real-estate. My answer is usually maybe, have I not got any work from it – DEFINITELY.

Needs must – the time to move away from the topic black economic empowerment has come. There's not going to be much BEE stuff going on for the next few months, yes BEE scorecards will need to be issued, but the process and the expense of BEE cannot be justified at the moment.

I then got to thinking about building a brand in this time of absolute uncertainty. There are three things that I think are most important (they would work for me).

1. Adaptability
2. Empathy
3. Community

Adaptability

There has been so much talk of adaptability in the last few weeks. I wrote yesterday about DigiFaith. I think this is brilliant; you have an entire broadcasting armada and no work, so what do you do. You target those industries (and faith is definitely an industry) that people need and you give them a platform to get their message out, interact with their congregants and raise money. Similarly, Ruan Jooste wrote an article yesterday about how AGMs (specifically for listed companies) will now need to be conducted remotely. Once this starts it then becomes the trend.

I was told by a friend in UK that most independent distillers are now going into making hand sanitiser – so is Shane Warne in Australia (I don't drink gin – but if they mess with my whiskey stills…….)

Empathy

This is a pandemic, the whole world is in it together. Crises like these are perfect for profiteering. Yes you'll make a lot of money but in this day of instant communication your brand will be justifiably pounded (think about the guptas). Then there is Audible.com – an Amazon company that decided to provide free access to children's stories. To quote their webpage "For as long as schools are closed, we're open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet."

Similarly the mobile networks have reduced their data prices in the last week (yes – they were forced to, but that will be forgotten in the long run), the timing was just perfect.

Community

This is about making communities feel included. The best example here is Cyril Ramaphosa. He took us into his confidence, he showed leadership, he made sure that this ministers speak to us. He created a sense of being led – something that South Africa hasn't had in many years, possibly since Mandela. Watch now – Cyril is going to get stronger. His naysayers have nowhere to move – they have to tow the line.

In fact, brand Cyril embodies all three of these components.  He showed balls and mettle when we need it.  You would do well to read Ferial Haffajee's article in the Daily Maverick where she thanks her lucky stars that it wasn't zuma in charge of us. 

Preachers need their flocks – even if this is now banned. DigiFaith. The virtual church

"The preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm going to stay". So sang the Mamas and Papas in their 1965 hit "California Dreamin". Religious leaders will tell you that their places of worship attract the most visitors in times of crisis, that is assuming that these places of worship are in fact open to their congregants.

"I realised last Monday morning, after the President's COVID19 announcement, that the school TV network that we had built up over the last four years, was redundant for the next few months, "Danie du Toit, the founder of the DigiCampus Group told me. This put the livelihoods of 200 people -many of them Yes4Youth (Y4Y) employees on the line. "We had to make a plan to keep these people working."

To backtrack a bit, du Toit started DigiCampus as an online TV station that targeted the prominent schools in South Africa. It had gained a great reputation as a distributor of content like sports events, cultural activities and even matric dances that has been enjoyed by parents, pupils and former pupils all over the globe. Each school has their own TV station, with a dedicated camera and production team. These teams are made up of mainly Y4Y people, who had been given their first experience in the world of work. The cost for this was borne by DigiCampus. It follows that without school activities and with schools being closed, a large number of people are going to find themselves without work. "We need to understand that the YES people are the most vulnerable employees out there." du Toit observes. "They are on a fixed term contract at the minimum wage, most of the YES people out there are not placed in core or critical positions in their places of work. They are in effect a nice-to-have. This is not the case at DigiCampus."

There is the obvious option that they could continue streaming classes to the pupils because the infrastructure was there. But this became a much bigger challenge when teachers were told to stay home. "We had less than 24 hours to make a plan. Our business strategy has always been based on three principles, innovation, re-invention and community." Says du Toit."DigiCampus is a disruptive technology, so it was just a matter of placing a focus on other aspects of the community. And right now, if there is one thing that the world needs – it is access to their places of worship"

du Toit and his team set about contacting all the major churches in the areas where they had TV stations and created DigiFaith. They offered their crews to the churches for the purposes of broadcasting services. With Easter coming up almost every large traditional and charismatic church is now legally barred from hosting their Easter festivities. "The response was immediate", du Toit exclaims. There was a concern about revenue generation though. Many churches raise a lot of money over this period for their various activities. "We offered to provide them with pay-per-stream services for fund raising."

What is not known at the moment is how much of a disruption COVID19 will cause to our daily lives. What is required though is civil discipline containing the spread of the virus. "All of the churches we spoke to recognised their civic duty in emphasising the need for social distancing, hygiene and containment. They have now been given a powerful tool that will allow them to speak to each congregant in a meaningful way."

What we do know is that the world will be never be the same again, but faith and comfort in these trying times can still be accessed by anyone with a smartphone.

Third day of quarantine, Cornonavirus explained by Tom King

I think that the biggest problem we face is that we don't really understand how serious this virus is.  The Italians will tell you it's very serious, the Chinese know how serious it is.  We are on 202 cases as I type.  There is a lot of stuff on every type of communication platform telling us something about the virus, to the extent that the government has attempted to prevent the dissemination of fake news.

The story appears to be that human beings got it from animals. If you want to read a sobering take on this - please look at Tim Cohen's editorial from a few days' ago.  The opening paragraph is sobering.

Not since the Last Supper, has any single meal had a greater global significance. Somewhere in the Chinese province of Hubei, a family sat down to have, we think, a scrumptious meal of pangolin. The consequences are now unfolding at a furious rate. You could call it the trillion-dollar meal, except that it has already cost eight times that and will cost more. To the extent that we can know, what are the likely financial consequences of that one solitary meal?

What perhaps don't understand is why the virus exists in humans , why it's called novel and other questions.  I came upon Tom King's blog this morning. I'm not endorsing it but the explanation seemed to be very clear. I have taken a large chunk of Tom's post and put it here.  The paragraph below is not my work

"Feeling confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this to others who don’t understand...

It has to do with RNA sequencing.... I.e. genetics.

Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year... you get immunity two ways...through exposure to a virus, or by getting a flu shot.

Novel viruses, come from animals.... the WHO tracks novel viruses in animals, (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1) (birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once, one of these animal viruses mutates, and starts to transfer from animals to humans... then it’s a problem, Why? Because we have no natural or acquired immunity.. the RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it so, we can’t fight it off.

Now.... sometimes, the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human, for years it’s only transmission is from an infected animal to a human before it finally mutates so that it can now transfer human to human... once that happens..we have a new contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, thats what decides how contagious, or how deadly it’s gonna be..

H1N1 was deadly....but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. It’s RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too.

Fast forward.

Now, here comes this Coronavirus... it existed in animals only, for nobody knows how long...but one day, at an animal market, in Wuhan China, in December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to people. At first, only animals could give it to a person... But here is the scary part.... in just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability, “slippery”

This Coronavirus, not being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity). Took off like a rocket. And this was because, Humans have no known immunity...doctors have no known medicines for it.

And it just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus, changed itself in such a way the way that it causes great damage to human lungs..

That’s why Coronavirus is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1 or any other type of influenza.... this one is slippery AF. And it’s a lung eater...And, it’s already mutated AGAIN, so that we now have two strains to deal with, strain s, and strain L....which makes it twice as hard to develop a vaccine.

We really have no tools in our shed, with this. History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in the past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.

 

 

We need a dti holiday and accredited Verification Agencies (March 2020)

Before I go into the number of VAs (79 of them) there is something else that needs to be discussed. And it's the dti and their BEE codes.

The economy is now comfortably in a recession, productivity is decreasing substantially because of the isolation. Small businesses (which are the backbone of the economy – that's why the dti wants to control them) are suffering because of the lack of economic activity. And we have the most ridiculous BEE targets that need to be achieved this year. It's a known fact that BEE stopped being about transformation years ago. It's a whipping tool that suddenly became a useful thing to sort out social ills like fees must fall. Under that useless commie idiot bolshie bob (rob davies) the BEE codes would have become a saviour for the whole nation – he was not above upping the targets to sort out tax problems.

Ebie's different though. He seems to be a lot more balanced than bolshie was. One thing for sure, he doesn't speak as much. He garnered a lot of praise for the Pepsi deal, he's known to scupper deals because he's a bloody unionist. This time not,

One competition lawyer told Moneyweb that given the grim state of the local economy and the government's high-profile campaign to encourage foreign investment, Patel can have had little room to push for onerous public interest commitments. "It can't have been a good time to fight for workers getting some control," said the lawyer.

This does show that Ebie understands that we need to be rational here. So Ebie, here what I say to you. Give us a BEE holiday for the rest of the year where every BEE scorecard that is issued where the measurement period starts in March 2020 has relaxed targets. Don't give up procurement, reduce the skills, enterprise and supplier development targets. It'll show that you see that business need to survive this pandemic – they don't need financial targets that are going to close them down. And whilst you are at it tell Samson to climb off his mining hobby horse and give us reliable green power – and then he can tell the bbc, zungu and adil to shut up as well.

Now onto verification agencies.

What is interesting is that the list that I have put on this blog is read often. Why not update it.  Not much has happened since that last post - only 79 now.

Here's a chart showing where you can find them

Interestingly the two "other" ones are in Limpopo and the North West. You can find them here – you need to dig deep into the website to find the list. My calculations are here.

SANAS has corona to the party with amended verification regulations. It was all my doing I tell you

This was sent to me by my old friend Obed.  I wonder whether this wasn't as a result of yesterday's post (it probably was).

Considering the number of requests and correspondences in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, SANAS has reviewed the R47-02 procedures in order to accommodate B-BBEE Verification Agencies.

In terms of Paragraph 18.1.1 of the R47-02, the following is stated:
18.1.1 The BEE Verification Agency shall verify, evaluate and validate to verify measured entities based on the principles encapsulated in the BBBEE Codes of Good Practice and this document and shall include all relevant elements of the Broad-Based BEE scorecard. All verifications are to be based on information that has been verified by an on-site visit to the measured entity. No score can be given without an on-site assessment of the entity. 

Based on the extraordinary pandemic that South Africa is currently facing, in the interim, the following shall be implemented by B-BBEE Verification Agencies when conducting B-BBEE Verifications of Measured Entities:

•  The normal engagement processes between the Accredited Agency and the Measured Entity shall be conducted.
• Onsite Visits may be conducted remotely via any suitable recorded video communications channel, if the Onsite assessment is not viable.
• All necessary documentation that is required by the B-BBEE Verification Agency shall be obtained to support the accreditation process.
• Where documents that (sic) cannot be obtained, the B-BBEE Verification Agency shall view these documents via any suitable video communications channel, and which must be recorded appropriately.
• All interviews to be conducted via any suitable video  teleconferencing communications channel, which will be recorded and saved internally.
• A Director of a Measured Entity to provide Sworn Affidavits confirming physical location as well as all information provided in relation to the B-BBEE Verification as true and accurate. (Does this mean that an affidavit does not need to be oathed?)
  
• Measured Entities to provide proof of physical address not older than 3 months.
• The B-BBEE Verification Agency shall identify all risks and mitigate these risks with regards to Onsite Visits during this time.
• During this interim measure, the B-BBEE Verification Agency takes full responsibility of the results of the B-BBEE Verification Certificate and Report
• It should be noted that this is not a permanent solution, and it will be reviewed on a monthly basis from date of signature and will be implemented until further notice. (that's what you think.  The industry has changed now.  You'd better just keep up)
  

Signed

Yuneal Padayachy
ACCREDITATION MANAGER: B-BBEE
DATE: 18/03/2020

The first day of isolation - more posts to come

I have decided to be a lot more prolific during the isolation period  (I've broken my first rule about blog posts - rule 1 NEVER START A POST WITH I).  There's a lot to write about, and possibly a little more time to write than before.  We're OK here, we live in a biggish house and the kids have a fair amount of space to move around.  This is obviously very unlike the overwhelming number of people who don't have those kinds of privileges.  We have decided to set up a routine for ourselves and the kids and the three other people that live on our property.  If it helps you, I'll run through it

The kids are still at school.  The school is making a massive attempt to ensure that the lessons are delivered to them from Google Classroom, this is all very well but they still need to be supervised.  With both parents and our helper (affectionately known as the Magic Black Woman - I can't escape my massive Peter Green obsession) around to supervise, it's a little easier.  But we all have to work too.  The trick here is the routine

•   The kids need to start school at 7 or 7:30.  This means that they are dressed and have had breakfast and teeth brushed at that time.  They will have an hour and a half of supervised school work.  My working day will now start at 10 to accommodate this
• They then have an hour to play or run around or do some activity
• Classes resume at 11 until 12. 
• Break for lunch
• They must then entertain themselves for an hour or so.  As my wife says - they need to be bored and learn to be bored and figure out how to cope with this
• Half an hour to catch up on what they have done
• Then they are on their own

I think this routine is going to be more involved than this. We still don't know how to manage our own work schedules yet.  But we are going to be rigid in this routine during the weekdays.  Weekends will be different.  If we don't find ourselves quarantined because we have picked up the virus then we'll take them to the park, go for rides on our bikes and throw balls around, without talking to anyone

The other thing that we feel very strongly about is supporting local businesses.  There are a number of restaurants in our neighbourhood.  Obviously money is not flowing.  But we need to find ways to support them.  I can see that we will need people to go shopping for us for small items.  Hair still needs to be cut.  Newspapers (other than iqbal's - we are proudly an iqbal-free newspaper house) need to be bought.

I'll keep on publishing our (hopefully) progress.  Tempers are going to fray.  It's a matter of looking beyond this isolation and coming out the other end with a modicum of sanity.  What I do know is that the world will change substantially as a result of this virus.  Ways of doing business will change.  Already I have seen companies like DigiTV taking a lead in getting classes to people on the other end of an IP connection.  I'll write more on this in the days to come

Carry on Corona, will SANAS notice that things are not normal

It's so obvious - every BEE verification agency is going to get massive non-conformances because of the Coronavirus.  I can just see DeeStructive telling their frightened agencies that they should have foreseen Coronavirus and done all their verification before it became a global crisis.  DeeStructive will probably do this over Skype because his job is so important that he can't risk getting infected by this disease that he is handing out non-conformances for.

Enough of that.  I spoke to my verification agency yesterday.  They are not doing onsites anymore.  They will manage this over Skype,  Zoom or some other method.  This is what all verification agencies need to start doing.  In fact - this should be the method of verification from here on out.  The process of onsite verification takes too much time.  Business cannot wait for a BEE certificate because the VA is trying to interview that junior manager who works in the Stilfontein branch before heading to Uppington to speak to a mid manager so that the client can be awarded one tenth of a point.

I have my doubts whether SANAS will send out a directive to this effect, that would ruin their desire to hand out non-conformances (which they feel compelled to do).  So I am telling the industry to take the necessary precautions and don't expose yourselves.  Most importantly, business must continue - these certificates have to be issued on time.

The nature of the BEE verification will change completely in the next few months.  SANAS had better wake up and realise that they are the biggest stumbling block to the transformation measurement progress.

What's that about Rosie, Paul?