With the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Bill on its way to President Jacob Zuma for his rubber stamp, companies involved in fronting will come under the hammer. “The Bill introduces offences for a range of fronting activities,” Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies said. “These include misrepresenting or attempting to misrepresent the B-BBEE status of an enterprise, providing false information or misrepresenting information to the Verification Personnel in order to secure a particular B-BBEE status, or misrepresenting information relevant to assessing the B-BBEE status of an enterprise to any organ of state or public entity. Failure by a B-BBEE Verification Professional to report offences is also punishable,” he said. And the sentences will be harsh. Offenders will either be liable to a fine or to imprisonment of up to 10 years or to both a fine and imprisonment.
