2004 was a landmark year for black economic empowerment (BEE) in the ICT industry, with heated debate on the issue and a promise of relatively speedy solutions.
Empowerment charter working group chairman Dali Mpofu describes the year`s efforts as "successful overall" and is confident outstanding issues will be wrapped up by January, ahead of the ICT empowerment charter commencement date on 1 March.
Laborious drafting process
During the drafting phase of the charter, the ICT industry, community and government raised a number of issues and each draft was met with mixed reaction.
The first working draft released in March contained the principles to govern the charter as well as specific targets relating to issues such as timeframes, share ownership, enterprise development and skills training.
Amid a debate over the omission of targets or a scorecard in the second draft, Mpofu announced there would be no targets in the second release of the draft, as the industry needed to first focus on the principles of the charter.
One of the many issues discussed included the industry`s failure to adequately address ICT training and skills development.
The third working draft released in April included the BEE scorecard targets that were omitted in the second draft.
Some industry players then levelled allegations against the working group, saying it put a lot of weight behind share ownership rather than skills development and training.
The fourth draft proved to be an uphill battle as it was postponed several times. Mpofu explained that the delay was due to meetings between the working group and the American Chamber of Commerce in a bid to reach agreement on critical issues such as equity ownership for multinationals.
After much debate, both groups reached consensus that there will be no blanket exemptions for any organisation from the requirement to comply with equity provisions.
Representing foreign-based ICT enterprises, IBM senior consultant Andrew Jackson said this week: "The multinationals felt that companies should either be classified as being compliant or non-compliant with the charter, and that compliance should be a requirement in public sector procurement, including procurement done across industries."
Players reflect on progress
Asked previously about the relatively high number of charter drafts submitted by the group, Mthunzi Mdwaba, a member of the working group, defended the process: "We implicitly said that we would be taking input. To ensure a consultative procedure, we had to go through different drafts."
Reflecting on the progress made, Mpofu says: "Our mission was to involve as many people as possible, and this included publicising the charter process rather than doing it behind closed doors.
"What proved to be difficult this year was the many submissions received from the industry; new issues were raised and resolved, then other issues would surface, which resulted in difficulty sticking to time frames," says Mpofu.
He notes that this taught the working group members to be tolerant and balance the various interests of different organisations. "We not only allowed the industry to contribute, but individual companies were allowed to submit their input."
Mpofu says the document is currently with the National Economic Development and Labour Council for review and he is confident the charter is on track.
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