Faritec awarded AA rating

Johannesburg, 19 Nov 2008

Faritec has improved its BEE rating from A to AA. The JSE-listed company was awarded the rating by Empowerdex.

“We are proud that we have integrated transformation into our operations. BEE doesn't exist as a separate office - every manager is involved in and contributes to the process of transformation,” says Hasmukh Gajjar, deputy CEO of Faritec.

The company improved from being a level 4 to a level 3 contributor, and also increased its procurement recognition level to 110%, from 100%. In its rating, the company performed well in the ownership, control, enterprise development and socio-economic development indicators of the broad-based BEE scorecard, and showed improvement over each of the indicators.

Gajjar believes some challenges remain. “We are comfortable with our performance in areas of ownership and shareholding. But the areas of skills development, employment equity and enterprise development are still areas we need to work on.”

The solution to these challenging areas lies in skills development programmes, Gajjar says. “Employment equity needs people in an organisation to achieve that. But when there is a general lack of skills in the IT sector, this makes it difficult. We now have a serious focus on mentorship programmes, and we are also making enormous amounts of investments in skills. We are targeting this area aggressively.”

The company has implemented a learnership programme for qualified ICT graduates from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.

“There is a need for transformation in every company and the BBEE codes of good practice are simply a guide to what companies need to achieve minimally. Transformation adds value to an enterprise and we will continue to strive to improve in this area.”