THABANG MOKOPANELE
Published by Budiness Day

TRADE and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa has announced that, from August, only certificates issued by accredited black economic empowerment verification agencies will be valid.

This means that companies will be required to produce a certificate from a verification agency accredited by the South Africa National Accreditation System (Sanas) for their black economic empowerment scorecards, according to the announcement in the Government Gazette last week.

Sanas is the only national accreditation body that gives recognition to laboratories, certification bodies, inspection bodies, proficiency testing scheme providers and test facilities.

The notice states that any certificate produced by “nonaccredited” agencies before April 9 would remain valid for 12 months from the date of issue.

This means that existing certificates remain valid, if accurate, even if produced by a “non- accredited” agency.

EconoBEE CEO Keith Levenstein said: “The minister has obviously taken this step to remove the risk of fronting and the production of inaccurate scorecards.”

EconoBEE is a division of EconoServ, a company that assists enterprises in understanding the requirements of accreditation. The group also helps businesses to design and implement strategies to develop and increase their broad-based black economic empowerment scorecard .

“Unfortunately it is also a step that adds red tape, and increases operating costs of small businesses,” Levenstein said.

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