Current scorecard a part of the compromise ALAN PEAT IT WAS a lengthy battle to get the black economic empowerment (BEE) programme for companies in the forwarding industry into shape, but a number of compromises were eventually reached which resolved most of the problems, according to Colgate Nangu, executive officer of BEE company, Sebenza. The initial difficulty was that there were two distinct sides face-to-face during the negotiations – the group of major forwarders who were allied under the Council of 10, and the independent BEE operations. “Our differences were not so much with the others as with the Council of 10,” said Nangu. “They wanted some things to be constructed differently, but eventually we compromised on a number of issues. “We didn’t get all that we wanted, but we can live with what we got.” The current scorecard was part of the compromise, but Nangu again told FTW that he could live with it. However, one area of continuing conflict surrounds the many major, foreign-owned companies in the SA forwarding industry. “On our side we were in total disagreement on this issue,” Nangu said. “The debate was on where these foreign companies fitted on the scorecard. “What we’re saying is: If you’ve fitted in elsewhere in the world, why not do it here?” Instead of enterprise development being an alternative to local empowerment and ownership, the BEE group felt that these companies should just get no points for this segment on the scorecard. “We felt uneasy about the other side not having a clear-cut definition of enterprise development and joint ventures,” Nangu said. “It remained a grey area. “We were very reluctant to agree with what we were told about these two segments of BEE, and didn’t think it was what government intended in the first place.” There was utter disenchantment in the BEE group about how these were being put into practice in the marketplace. “A number of companies associated with black-owned companies,” Nangu said, “with each taking shares in the company stock, and sharing premises and facilities and the like in the already established company. “But, under these circumstances, the traditional company is unlikely to develop its own competition. “We feel that this present method is basically just fronting.” But, Nangu added, this whole issue is now being dealt with by the department of trade and industry. “The code of good practice seems to be answering some of our objectives,” he said, “and we can live with it.”
