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The Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ms Nomalungelo Gina, will address the joint webinar session that will be hosted by the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Commission and the Commission for Employment Equity on, Monday, 31 August 2020 at 10:00.

The session will focus on management control and the status of women based on the two recently published reports, namely the Commission of Employment Equity Report and the National Status and Trends on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Report that measure transformation progress against the requirements of the Employment Equity Act and the B-BBEE Act, respectively. The reports are available on the websites www.bbbeecommission.co.za and www.labour.gov.za.

According to the National Status and Trends on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment report for 2019, overall black ownership is 29% (2018: 25%; 2017, 27%) with black women ownership being 12% (2018: 10%; 2017: 9%), while black women occupy 20.55% of the board positions on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The Commission for Employment Equity report shows that males occupy 75.6% of the top management positions with women accounting only for 24.4%, and the white group dominates overall top management level at 65.6%. White and Indian groups are over-represented at top and senior management when compared to the Economically Active Population (EAP).

Deputy Minister Gina will deliver the keynote address. The Deputy President of the Black Management Forum, Ms Tasneem Fredericks, CEO of Zindela Communications Ms Nomathemba Malinga, Non-Executive Director at Telkom SA SOC Limited Ms Khanyisile Kweyama, Secretary General of the Black Business Council, Ms Judi Nwokedi will be panellists in a session that will be facilitated by Ms Thuli Magubane from Mint Fresh Advisory Services. The Chairperson of CEE, Ms Tabea Kabinde and the B-BBEE Commissioner Ms Zodwa Ntuli, will provide the overview of the two reports.

This joint webinar is pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding concluded between the 
B-BBEE Commission and the Commission for Employment Equity, which helps the two structures to coordinate their awareness activities, information sharing and monitoring of compliance with the B-BBEE Act and the Employment Equity Act towards the full realisation of the transformation objectives. The B-BBEE Commission is a regulatory entity that oversees the implementation of the B-BBEE Act while the Commission for Employment Equity is an advisory body that advises the Minister of Employment and Labour on employment equity.

“Equating the two reports, it is evident that black women remain marginalised when it comes to participating in the ownership, control and decision-making contrary to what is required by the B-BBEE Act and Employment Equity Act, and this simply indicates that representation of black people on average is far from reflecting the country’s EAP and demographics at this pace,” says Gina.

She adds that it is worrying that the 12% black women ownership reflected is threatened by rent-seeking and tokenism tendencies, as picked up in some of the major B-BBEE transactions registered with the B-BBEE Commission. Women, who are wives or daughters or relatives of the black male partners in a B-BBEE deal, are often merely roped in and reflected as owners of shares on paper, but without any participation in the core operations or decision-making in the entity.

“Also, some entities appear to include women purely to score points for female representation, without even these women holding any director position in the measured entity, and often the black male is the sole director of an entity that is either 100% black women owned or majority black women owned. This disconnect in ownership and effective control is seen through the shrinking of voting rights attached to shares held by women from 20% in 2018 to 17% in the 2019 Major B-BBEE Transactions Analysis report.,” adds Gina.

She emphasises that these kind of deals cannot be recognised for B-BBEE compliance and are rejected outright upon assessment of major B-BBEE transactions, when entities refuse to align. Major B-BBEE transactions of R25 million and above must be submitted to the B-BBEE Commission for registration and this gives the opportunity to assess the effect of these deals to reject those with fronting or misrepresentation indicators and only permit those that facilitate real economic value, control and participation to black people.

It is expected that the webinar will raise awareness of these issues and come up with constructive and practical ways to remove existing binding constraints to enable access to finance, procurement opportunities, markets and information for women owned enterprises and entrepreneurs, and to accelerate women economic empowerment. The B-BBEE Commission offers advice free of charge on any matter connected to B-BBEE to all stakeholders, irrespective of their size.

The B-BBEE Commission was established in terms of section 13B of the B-BBEE Act 53 of 2003 as amended by Act No 46 of 2013 with powers effective from 6 June 2016. The 
B-BBEE Commission’s mandate, amongst others, is to supervise and encourage adherence to the B-BBEE Act in the interest of the public, conduct reactive and proactive investigations and promote good governance and accountability by creating an effective and efficient environment for the promotion and implementation of the objectives of broad-based black economic empowerment.

Click here to register

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WHOyYmimTM6Y_S_JM6F6PA

Issued on behalf of the B-BBEE Commission by The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition