BEE Charter clears final hurdle

KEVIN MAYHEW THE FINAL hurdle blocking the transport industry’s transformation Charter has been negotiated and its guidelines are expected to be revealed in November this year. The sticking point was the question of ownership representation. With many of the major logistics companies listed on the JSE and characterised by huge institutional investment, it was difficult to determine the level of black ownership. Implementation Human resources director of Imperial Logistics, Johan van der Walt, said the industry was confident that it had now achieved a balance that would see it implement the industry Charter aims. Industry Charters have been widely negotiated by the various industries, but are not legally binding and will serve more as codes of good practice. “I believe that the main driver of BEE in our industry will be the ability to procure from BEE companies and failure to transform will lead to isolation in the marketplace. Long-term viability is dependent on transformation,” he said. Targets accepted demand change in five years with regard to ownership equity, management structures, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development and residual indicators (poverty and Aids alleviation). Recently Vuyo Jack, the CEO of BEE ratings agency Empowerdex, predicted that any companies that bucked the spirit of any Charter probably had about two years’ survival ahead of them.