ICT sector code for BEE gazetted

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Rob Davies, gazetted the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector code for black economic empowerment (BEE) on 6 June 2012.

According to Davies, the code was issued in terms of Section 9(1) of the broad-based BEE (B-BBEE) Act.

This ICT Sector Code is legally binding on entities in the ICT sector from the date of gazette to 31 April 2026 with a mid-term five year review on 31 April 2017, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in a statement today (13 June 2012).

The DTI added that this closes the chapter of the development of a Sector Code by the ICT Steering Committee which began on 25 June 2003 when the ICT Charter was launched to the public to allow stakeholders in the industry to negotiate and agree on a Charter that will serve as transformation guidelines for the industry.

“It has been a marathon task of many years,” a spokesperson for the South African Communications Forum (SACF) said. “Congratulations to those who stayed the course and completed this important work.”

The Committee formally concluded the work in meeting on 16 February 2012 where it was agreed that the application to gazette the code should be made, the DTI said.

Although the Sector Code is aligned to the generic best practice codes, the DTI said that there were some key highlights:

• The ICT sector has set a black ownership target of 30% to be achieved by entities in the sector instead of the 25% of the Generic Codes. The target set for Equity Equivalent for multinationals that qualify is also 30%.
• The main feature of the charter is a set target of 5% net profit after tax to be spent on enterprise development initiatives that are aimed at growing and developing black owned ICT enterprises. The target for the Generic Codes is 3%.
• A spend of 1.5% of net profit after tax on socio-economic development initiatives to improve the lives of communities through programmes such as ICTs in education, and health. The Generic Codes requires companies to spend 1%.

Bridging the digital divide in the country is the ultimate goal of spend on development initiatives, the DTI said.

The ICT Charter includes a sector-specific scorecard that will be used to determine the BEE scores of enterprises in the ICT sector. This was agreed upon by the sector stakeholders, the DTI said.

The DTI said that as with the Generic Codes, the scorecard includes the seven standard elements of BEE: ownership, management control, employment equity, preferential procurement, skills development, enterprise development and socio-economic development initiatives.

Minister of Communications Dina Pule said that she supports the application of the ICT Sector Code.

Pule will “work towards establishing the ICT Charter Council”, the Department of Communications said in the statement. This council will monitor the implementation of the Sector Code as per the provision of the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice, the DoC said.

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