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President Jacob Zuma has signed into law the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Amendment Bill 2013. The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says the signing of this Bill into law is significant, as this will streamline the monitoring and evaluation of empowerment.

According to Davies, the bill will significantly enhance the objectives of the B-BBEE Act No 53 of 2003.

“The amendments to the B-BBEE Act intend to achieve key strategic objectives, amongst others, to align the B-BBEE Act with other legislation impacting on B-BBEE and with the Codes; establishment of the B-BBEE Commission; provide for the regulation of the verification industry by the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors; and deal with non-compliance and circumvention by, inter alia, introducing offences and penalties” he said.

Minister Davies stated that fronting as defined in the Act is now a statutory offence and those who are involved in fronting and convicted may be imprisoned for 10 years.

“We have introduced offences of the following acts of fronting, which include misrepresenting or attempting to misrepresent the B-BBEE status of an enterprise; and providing false information or misrepresenting information to the verification personnel in order to secure a particular B-BBEE status, among others. Yes any person convicted of an offence, in terms of the Act, is liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years or to both a fine and imprisonment”, added Davies.

The Minister mentioned that the other achievement of the Act is the establishment of the B-BBEE Commission, which will play a critical role in overseeing, supervising and promoting adherence with the B-BBEE Act and Codes of Good Practice, in the interest of the public.

“The B-BBEE Commission will be given the task of acting without fear or favour independently.  It will also strengthen and foster collaboration between the public and private sector in order to promote and safeguard the objectives of B-BBEE. Over and above the Commission will ensure that BEE activities in the country are aligned”, highlighted Minister Davies.

The Act has been published in the Government Gazette No.37271 of 27 January 2014.