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STATEMENT BY THE B-BBEE ICT SECTOR COUNCIL
On the Opening of New Licences and the Threat toTransformation through the dilution of the 30% HDI Ownership Requirement [Johannesburg, South Africa, 27 May 2025] — The B-BBEE ICT Sector Council notes the recent publication of policy directions by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies proposing to open new individual electronic communications network service (IECNS) licences. We welcome this move as it has the potential to expand the market and increase the participation of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) if implemented within a robust transformation framework of the ECA.
However, we are gravely concerned by the accompanying proposal to enable Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs) to substitute the legislated 30% HDI ownership requirement set out in the Electronic Communications Act (ECA), Act 36 of 2005, as a licensing condition for licensees. The introduction of EEIPs as an alternative to the 30% HDI ownership requirement, especially when issuing new licences, may reverse the hard-fought but fragile transformation gains achieved to date in the ICT sector. It risks re-entrenching exclusion, allowing historically privileged entities to again dominate under the guise of investment or innovation.
STATEMENT BY THE B-BBEE ICT SECTOR COUNCIL - EeIP Policy directive