One more push for charter

Johannesburg, 20 Feb 2009

Following the breakdown of talks on the ICT BEE charter last week, the charter steering committee says issues will be resolved.

Chairman of the steering committee Norman Munzhelele says: “We don't want to leave this hanging. We will go back and resolve the issues to fulfil our mandate.”

At a key meeting held last week, industry players failed to reach consensus on the draft ICT Sector Codes of Good Practice on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment.

The steering committee has been mandated to sign off on the sector codes, and trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa has selected the ICT charter as one of six charters which will be gazetted as sector codes. This mandate means the industry will have to reach consensus on its proposed codes before a code of good practice can be issued and gazetted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Munzhelele says the members of the steering committee will go back to their constituencies to discuss any resolutions. He says this will be followed by another meeting of the committee next week. Munzhelele will then be tasked with “making a determination” on 26 February, following the outcome of the meeting of the steering committee.

He says the committee has taken cognisance of the differences of opinions which exist in the industry, but that won't hinder the conclusion of the sector codes.

Long wait ahead

Munzhelele maintains that the process - which has taken more than three years - will continue and resolutions will be reached by the industry. “We are hopeful we are going to resolve this from our side.”

This is despite hopes by the steering committee to reach an agreement and have the final charter operational since 2005.

In January, the draft ICT sector codes had not been gazetted and ITWeb reported this was because the DTI had referred the codes back to the steering committee to resolve certain issues.

We are hopeful we are going to resolve this from our side.
Norman Munzhelele, chairman, steering committee

Munzhelele stated the codes were referred back over two issues: ownership and social investment clauses.

The last draft of the steering committee recommended the inclusion of a R7.5 billion cap on ownership, which would lower the barrier of entry for BEE companies. Deals with a value of at least R7.5 billion would then be judged to be in compliance with the codes. Munzhelele said the DTI requested an economic rationale for this ownership clause and also instructed the steering committee to iron out issues around proposed social investment programmes.