The South African SMME Forum wants the ICT charter reworked to reflect changes in the empowerment landscape over the past few years.
The final version of the charter has been submitted to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for gazetting. Should that process proceed smoothly, it will come into effect from April and will be in place for 10 years before being reviewed.
South African SMME Forum president Tebogo Khaas says the industry body has not seen the final document, and is concerned about its contents. The forum was, however, part of the working group that developed a base for the charter in 2005.
Khaas says, since then, the charter was aligned with the DTI's BEE Code of Good Practice, which came out in 2007. He explains that the alignment process could have resulted in changes to the document that may not favour the industry.
The charter has been in the pipeline since 2003, when the process kicked off. It has been held up several times because of discord among the stakeholders and then when the codes were launched.
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Andile Tlhoa'ele, deputy chairman of the steering committee, says the forum has not been left out of the process, as it signed off on the base document. He concedes, however, the group was not part of the alignment process.
Tlhoa'ele says all stakeholders are in agreement, and will have an opportunity to comment when the charter is gazetted, which is when the public has 60 days to speak out before the final version comes into effect.
He says he will push for the document to be gazetted so everyone can comment and see the final version.
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