It is important to understand that transformation in our country is a highly complex process that will only be achieved through the culmination of an inclusive process in which government and industry attempt to find consensus. The latter part of 2005, and early 2006, will bring much-sought clarity to all concerned. For up-to-date information on this process, visit About BEE on this website. 

It is important to know that the scorecard will be the BEE measurement tool for at least the next ten years. When government introduces an accredited rating system in due course, verification agencies will be tasked with ensuring that scorecards are authentic and free of the elements of fronting. The www.mpowerratings.co.za website offers a toolkit that is extremely cost-effective, and allows an enterprise to develop a dynamic online scorecard, verified by its own auditor or accounting officer. The scorecard can be updated, and communicated via the web, as and when required. Click here to follow the step-by-step process.

It is the fraudulent process whereby some enterprises misrepresent their BEE status in order to get business, particularly from state-owned enterprises , in an unfair manner. Click here for an article, written by Dijon de Jager of mPowerRatings, on this topic. 

No, not necessarily. In terms of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act no. 53 of 2003, government has set out a broad basis of empowerment upon which enterprises can transform. Broadly speaking, a BEE status will be achieved when an enterprise has performed adequately in terms of a measured scorecard, consisting of seven elements or indicators. Black ownership, as one of the seven elements, generally constitutes 20% of the total score, leaving enough opportunity for the enterprise to become BEE compliant through scoring in other areas such as Preferential Procurement, Employment Equity, and Enterprise Development. More about the scorecard is available on this website.

These BEE questionnaires are sent to you, by your customers, in order that they may measure their preferential procurement status, on their own scorecards. Many of these questionnaires are poorly designed, bearing little resemblance to information required on the broad-based scorecard. Where an enterprise is in the process of developing a BEE status it could potentially be a dangerous practice to complete any forms of a static nature, and a dynamic scorecard, as is offered on this website, is recommended.

It is vitally important that businesses embrace the process, besides; there is legislation that will ensure that it remains an integral part of our future business landscape.

Well, if we sit back and do nothing, we will have only ourselves to blame if we end up like Zimbabwe, and it is most certainly not something we want to see happening here. We need to have empowerment on a broad basis. It will have the effect of creating a much bigger economy in which everyone can share. We will have vastly more skilled people, and therefore more taxpayers contributing in the system, which will mean lower tax rates for all. In a larger economy, there will be more jobs and less unemployment, and there is every reason to believe that crime will decrease as a result thereof.

What is very interesting is that we are already seeing it right now. Look at the motor industry as an example. We are experiencing record car sales every year and it is expected that by 2010, sales would have doubled. This is because we have more black people, and in particular more black women, that are driving motorcars. This translates into increased sales of fuel, servicing, tyres, insurance and much more. We see the same scenario in the construction sector, particularly in the housing market. Therefore, the bigger the economy, the better it is for everyone.