DiData ups empowered status

By Siyabonga Africa, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 06 Mar 2009

Dimension Data has moved up from a level four to level three broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) contributor.

The IT services and solutions company has moved ahead of GijimaAst and Paracon Holdings in the BEE ratings.

A DiData statement says its audit was done by Honeycomb BEE Ratings, which has been described as one of 11 accredited BEE auditors in SA. The company's corporate social involvement activities were monitored over the 2008 financial year.

The BEE evaluator says the IT services and solutions provider is 25.1% black-owned and more than three-quarters of its board members are from previously-disadvantaged communities.

Adding value

The IT services and solutions provider has been classified as a value-added supplier. DiData transformation executive Zandile Mbele explains that, as a level three value-added supplier, its clients can claim that for every R1 spent with it, R1.35 is recognised as being a BBBEE procurement spend.

“Dimension Data views its elevation to BBBEE level three status as another step forward in a process to which all our employees are committed,” says Dimension Data MEA MD Jason Goodall.

Goodall adds more than 40% of its total annual procurement spend is with empowered companies. It has also assisted a quarter of its suppliers to achieve their own BEE certification.

“When it comes to preferential procurement, we focus on building relationships with companies that are making strides in their transformational policies and their BEE compliance,” Mbele says.

Training the future

Mbele adds Dimension Data's new BBBEE rating is also a product of its representative management control, which has seen 10 out of 13 executive directors being black and two of them women.

The company's corporate social responsibility report shows more than 20.27% of its senior managers are previously-disadvantaged individuals (PDIs), while a further 14.57% in middle management are PDIs and close to half of its junior staff are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The IT services and solutions provider highlights its education programmes, which have trained more than 3 000 previously-disadvantaged people. Dimension Data's Saturday schools have also reached more than 6 800 pupils, with the aim of tutoring 40 000 by 2015.