As a modern business imperative in South Africa, having the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) scorecard explained is vital to business success. Also known as simply BEE to many, having the BEE certificate that comes with meeting the requirements of the scorecard is essential to business being able to operate successfully. So here is a brief overview of what is expected in each of the five B-BBEE scorecard elements:

Ownership

Ownership measures the black ownership of your business. The current ownership criteria require businesses to be 51{c4d976c6d7323d399b11046b361722ee07be3129afaeb59624aa397adea1d60f} black owned to be fully compliant.

Management and Control

This element measures the participation of black people in the management and control of your business. Proving that your business includes black people in management is vital to your BEE certification because it proves that you are not involved in fronting practices, and that you are pursuing the true empowerment objectives of B-BBEE.

Skills Development

Here your business’s expenditure on skills development, learnerships, apprenticeships, internships, and SETA-accredited training programmes for black and/or unemployed individuals is measured.

This is a particularly effective element on which to score full points towards your B-BBEE certificate, because it encourages investment in your own business potential. By aiding in skills development you empower new employees and South Africans in general to bolster both your own workforce and the economy. Both of these factors together with B-BBEE points for your scorecard add great value to your business and its growth potential.

Enterprise and Supplier Development

Adding to the prevention of non-empowering actions such as fronting, this element measures your procurement expenditure from B-BBEE certified, empowering suppliers. It also serves to measure your contributions towards the development of supplier and enterprise beneficiary entities that meet the 51{c4d976c6d7323d399b11046b361722ee07be3129afaeb59624aa397adea1d60f} black-owned requirement.

In order to ensure that the goals of B-BBEE are met and sustainable development and economic liberation of previously disadvantaged groups is attained, it is necessary to measure this. By doing so it encourages businesses to support businesses and in return achieve B-BBEE certification. It also provides a means of identifying those businesses who are non-compliant or fraudulent.

Socio-Economic Development

Here your contributions towards socio-economic development is measured. This usually includes initiatives such as community responsibility initiatives where businesses assist in building or repairing schools, libraries, parks and so forth.

While these are not strictly business-related, these form part of the requirements for your B-BBEE certificate because such initiatives aid in empowering communities. By improving the lives of the people, you give them a greater chance of getting ahead with greater quality of life, education, and so forth.

How we help you

The best way to make sure that you meet all requirements is to enlist the aid of the legal compliance experts here at SERR Synergy. We assist businesses in reaching compliance through our comprehensive three-fold approach, which includes:

• Consultation
• Gap analysis
• Strategy and implementation

This process is about more than just getting your business certified, but helping you to understand every aspect of you B-BBEE compliance, where it may be falling short, and how to plan and implement ongoing improvements.

Have a look at our blog to witness our expertise at work.