In an extraordinarily candid admission about differences of opinion between the department and its minister, Matona said the view expressed by Mpahlwa was a personal one not shared by the department. It was “misleading” to suggest a change in the black economic empowerment regime was in the pipeline anytime soon. “We are only just starting to implement BEE. The codes were only finalised last year”.

Mpahlwa’s comment at an empowerment meeting with labour, business and civil society that the department was considering removing employment equity and skills development from the empowerment scorecard sparked concern as it would make compliance with empowerment requirements more onerous. There was also an outcry about shifting goalposts as the step would penalise companies that had done well in transforming their workplaces and skills development but not so well in transferring equity, shifting procurement to black-owned suppliers and ensuring black representation in the upper levels of the management hierarchy.

“We are still only in the construction phase of the regime which includes several things apart from the codes. It includes the alignment of legislation, the alignment of the charters, the verification industry, guidelines for the verification industry by way of accreditation and so on. “I don’t think there are issues with regard to the regime we are putting in place. The issue seems to be really one of the BEE practice in the marketplace with some players conducting themselves in a manner that makes it appear as if they are implementing it but in fact they are avoiding the full commitments we require in terms of BEE policy.

“The minister was reflecting a view and not necessarily a majority view that we should consider, going forward, whether we want to have skills development in the BEE scorecard because it is governed by other legislation and other instruments. “It is not something the department is advocating. Our stance is that we should continue to implement and should draw lessons from practices so that when the time comes for a review because a review of BEE policy is built into the legislation and into the codes of good practice we will do it. Whether we do the review in 10 years as required is another matter. There might be merit in doing it earlier. “A review is built in and is a necessary thing for us to do but is not something for the immediate term,” Matona said.

BEE sector charters that were in the process of being finalised were the forestry, construction, financial services, transport, media and communications, and housing charters. They would be gazetted as soon as they had been checked against legislation and the codes of good practice.
No new instruments were being considered to support BEE firms that suffered knocks from the economic downturn.