Johannesburg, 28 Nov 2002
The Black Information Technology Forum (BIT4M) is proud to announce two new appointments to the executive staff of its flagship Accredited BIT4M Company Programme (ABC Programme).
David Moshapalo joins as chairman of the BIT4M Accreditation Committee (BAC), as well as Sipho Ndaba as the Programme Director for the Accredited BIT4M ABC Programme.
The overall objective of the ABC Programme is to identify black-owned, controlled and managed ICT companies. These companies are assessed and accredited by a committee consisting of auditors from various auditing firms, which makes up the BAC.
Moshapalo is an empowerment pioneer and has held various high profile positions in the black economic empowerment arena. He is a well-respected champion of black empowerment causes and is currently the convenor of the Presidential Working Group on Black Business, as well as chairman of the Black Business Council Management Committee.
He sees his role on the committee as follows: "I`m very privileged to take up this position. Pending the government act on empowerment, the role played in accrediting companies within the sector is very important, and must be above board to have credibility - that`s why our committee is made up of reputable auditors. But we`re still going to be very biased against fronting in particular, which has been a major issue in the ICT sector. If companies say they are black-owned or controlled, then they must be. The ICT sector will act as a pilot for the rest of SA business in this, which is why we need to ensure the industry responds positively to the challenges - and we`ll assist them in those efforts."
Ndaba comes as a secondment from KPMG. The position of the programme director is a rotational one - after every six months, a new programme director will be appointed to continue with the efforts of the ABC Programme.
His role, he comments, is primarily a marketing one for the programme: "The responsibility of my role as Programme Director is to market the accreditation programme to different stakeholders, in three crucial constituencies. Firstly, we need public buy-in, then we need corporate buy-in for the process, especially from the multinationals with high-profile presence in SA. Some of these companies are proactively putting in place their own empowerment programmes, which helps us. Lastly, we need buy-in from government. Their support for the programme will empower both ICT service providers and the procurers of IT services, and will feed into government`s own legislative initiatives.
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