Black economic empowerment (BEE) in South Africa is set to ”significantly progress” following the signing into law earlier this year of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, says Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mphalwa.
Speaking in the National Assembly on his Budget vote, he said that ensuring this legislation was implemented was among his department’s main strategic objectives.
In this regard, trade and industry’s first task would be to appoint members to a BEE advisory council.
”We are currently discussing potential nominees to the council with the presidency.”
Mphalwa said a second task was to gazette the code of good practice, referred to in the act, in order to ”provide more direction on the obligation of enterprises”.
The department would also work towards aligning the BEE strategy with the National Treasury’s preferential procurement legislation and regulation.
Mphalwa announced he was committing his department to ”procuring not less than 50 % of required goods and services from black and women-owned enterprises”.
The minister also spelled out a further six strategic objectives his department would work towards over the next three years.
These included increasing the contribution of small enterprises to the economy; raising the levels of investment in the economy; expanding markets for South African goods and services; contributing towards building platforms for more competitive enterprises; increasing value-addition in local manufacturing and services sectors; and providing South African consumers with ”access to redress”.
On raising the levels of investment in the local economy, Mphalwa said more than R500-million in investment incentives would be allocated to businesses during this financial year.
The department was carrying out a survey of the ”investment climate” in South Africa, and the results would be presented to Cabinet in January.
On expanding export markets, he said there had been a recent ”return to form” in the country’s manufacturing output.
”Many enterprises have in the past year questioned the wisdom of pursuing export markets as the rand appreciated against the US dollar, and as demand dampened in the global economy.
”However, those exporters that took a longer-term perspective have successfully weathered this difficult period, [and] have identified ways to improve their competitiveness,” he said.
On providing protection for local consumers, Mphalwa said many ordinary South Africans ”do not know where to turn for assistance when they have problems that are of a commercial nature”.
This included when they were credit ”blacklisted”, when something they had bought did not work properly, or when ”their monthly instalment for new furniture is much higher than what the retailer advertised”.
”This year, the department is focusing on consumer protection, especially in respect to consumer credit issues like indebtedness and reckless lending. New policies and legislation will be finalised this year,” Mphalwa said.
Education and communication campaigns would be run, and R23-million allocated to ”the enforcement of compliance with existing laws in this area”.
A consumer protection policy and a new consumer credit policy would also be introduced this year. — Sapa