In December 2005 dti said that they would have a new set of codes that would go through cabinet by June 2006.

After over 4 months of holding back and delaying, cabinet finally read through the codes and decided to throw them out. Now 11 months after the draft codes went out cabinet is saying they need to be simplified even more. They have now set themselves a target of December this year to have the new simplified codes published.

The fact that it has taken this long and the desperate need for the codes is making more and more companies very anxious. They are all waiting for finalisation before they make any definite business decisions which simply is not possible. The lack of BBBEE codes has caused plenty companies to hold back which in itself is causing BEE to slow down.

The entire concept of Broad-Based BEE is not as difficult as cabinet is implying. They are complicating the matter by saying it is difficult. In 4 hours I can quite easily teach people how BBBEE works, the principles of the scorecard and how to comply. If any member of cabinet wants to learn how BBBEE works I will give them with the greatest of pleasure a free workshop.

By holding back and not publishing the codes Government is making it harder for companies to comply.

By
Gavin Levenstein