Why Need A Council

At a strategic level, the Council was required to:

→ Review and amend the 2012 B-BBEE ICT Sector Code and get it approved by the Line Minister and the Minister of Trade and Industry, gazetted and monitored for implementation. This would include consultative workshops with the Sector and the actual writing of the Amended Code, workshopping it among members and the line Departments and thereafter channelling it through relevant approval processes.

→Development of the B-BBEE ICT Sector Monitoring Report. This process involves requesting B-BBEE Verification Reports from Verification Agencies, capturing the information, computing it to get aggregate results on each of the elements and then the report, which explains the results, analyse them and makes conclusions and recommendations.

→ Provincial Roadshows to promote, educate, explain and advocate around the Amended Code. This involves traveling to different provinces, communicating with stakeholders and responding to queries they raise, whether it be about the Amended code or B-BBEE related issues in general (including complaints).

2. At an Administrative level, the Council was expected to set up processes and systems to enable it to carry out its work, specifically the following:

→ Development of the Council’s Constitution
→ Establishment of Sub-Committees
→ Development, adoption and signing of the Non-Disclosure Agreement
→ Development, Agreement, adoption of the Declaration of Interest Framework
→ Establishment of the Council Website to communicate and interact with Stakeholders (Notices, programmes, information, events etc)

Stakeholder Engagement Framework

→ The Council completed the Amended Code after several meetings and workshops which included stakeholder consultations, from the private sector to government.

→ The amended Code was gazetted on 7 November 2016, making the Council one of the 3 Charter Council to amend its Code to align with the Code of Good Practice developed by the DTI.

→ The Council has developed two Sector Monitoring Reports, one an interim report for 2016, and the 2016/17 Sector Monitoring Report. This has been manageable through the relationship created between the Council and verification agencies.

→ The Council has already forwarded two cases of non-compliance with the Code to the B-BBEE Commission.

→ The Council has already provided guidance to the following companies to assist them to comply with the Amended B-BBEE ICT sector Code:

→ Ericsson South Africa
→ Hewlett Packard South Africa
→ Samsung South Africa
→ Vodacom
→ Amazon Web Services
→ Information Technology Association
→ Pinnacle Holdings
→ MICT SETA
→ Cell C

→ In addition, the Council has been invited to address close to 20 events during which the focus and objectives of the Codes were articulated while guidance was given to assist those implementing the Sector Code.

→ Presentation of the Code to the Portfolio on Telecommunications and Postal Service, including its envisaged impact and how it supports government initiatives such as skills development, enterprise development and SMME support.

→ Survey of the Transformation in Top 100 companies in the Sector

→ Workshop with verification Agencies to engage them on the implementation of the B-BBEE ICT Sector Code to address challenges relating to verifications and interpretation of the Code.

→ Develop guidelines and models for broad-based empowerment of Black owned companies at local, provincial and national level;

→ Develop and implement an interactive portal to communicate the basic methods of applying the B-BBEE scorecard for all the different elements of B-BBEE.

→ Develop baseline indicators, conducting or commissioning research for the purposes of ensuring the effective implementation of the ICT Sector Code.

→ Development of the B-BBEE ICT Sector Monitoring Report for the 2017/18 financial year.

→ Engagements with stakeholders, proactively or on request, to provide guidance on the implementation of the Code.

→ From September 2017, the Council will require support, financial and other resources to run a fully-fledged office, develop guidelines and manuals for its stakeholders to facilitate the implementation of the Code and also highlight benefits for Measured Entities. The Council will embark on strategic engagements with the Sector to develop a funding model backed by Sector and Government support.