No targets in second ICT BEE charter draft

Johannesburg, 06 Apr 2004

The information and communications technology (ICT) empowerment working group is wrapping up its national roadshow with a stop in Nelspruit today, ahead of the release of the second draft of the proposed ICT black economic empowerment (BEE) charter on Thursday.

Dali Mpofu, chairman of the working group, says the roadshow has been a success as the different provinces have had the chance to focus on the principles of the proposed charter without focusing on the issue of BEE targets.

"There will be no targets in the second release of the draft as we have wanted to focus more on discussing the principles of the charter during the roadshow. This has worked wonders, as the people in the different sessions have spent hours discussing the principles without getting distracted by the possible BEE targets," he says.

The industry associations will now complete workshops on the charter before the end of April and it is in these meetings that the issues of targets and a BEE scorecard are expected to be discussed at length, Mpofu says.

"The industry associations will begin to get a feel for what kind of targets need to be set for BEE. We are also getting more reliable data from the three research teams, which will assist in setting realistic targets. The preliminary information on targets will then be released in the third draft in early May."

Mpofu says the various sessions in the nine provinces have been attended by on average 100 people per session and have been very beneficial.

"The discussions in the various provinces have uncovered local nuances in issues like procurement and dealing with smaller rural IT companies. The discussions also brought new input to the first draft of the charter, which will be incorporated into the second release before Thursday," he says.

The final draft of the charter will no longer be released at Futurex next month as was previously hoped, but submissions will close in mid-May, which will give the working group about six weeks to resolve any issues and put the charter together for its release at the end of June, Mpofu says.