Green light for ICT charter

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 08 Dec 2006

The ICT sector's empowerment charter has been given a new lease on life as Cabinet has approved phase two of the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI's) Codes of Good Practice on broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE).

The ICT charter stalled because of numerous delays in the approval of the DTI's codes, says Andile Tlhoaele, executive director of Coral-I Solutions. Tlhoaele is also a member of the ICT charter steering committee.

Cabinet approved the ICT charter as a sector Code of Good Practice in May. Yesterday, Cabinet approved phase two of the DTI's BEE codes, which deals with the scorecard, he says. The charter will be finalised soon and gazetted, he says.

Issues that are addressed by the scorecard include employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development, socio-economic development, qualifying small enterprises as well as the treatment of multinationals.

Cabinet endorsed phase one of the DTI's codes, which deals with the conceptual framework, the verification agencies, sector transformation charters, ownership, and the recognition of the sale of assets and management, in October 2005.

The DTI has also communicated its intention to publish the final BEE Codes of Good Practice in the Government Gazette early next year. Some media reports indicate the process could take place as early as January.

The minister of trade and industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa, will also gazette sector transformation charters for BEE, the department says in a media statement.

Aligning the charter

Department of Communications spokesman Albi Modise says once the final cross-sector BEE Codes of Good Practice have been gazetted, the next step will be to align the ICT charter with the provisions in these codes. The alignment process should be finalised by the first quarter of 2007, Modise says.

The alignment process will ensure the ICT charter uses methodology and terminology that are in line with language used in the final cross-sector BEE codes, Tlhoaele says. However, there will be no change to the structure of the ICT charter.

The ICT charter working group should also align the provisions of the scorecard in the ICT charter with those in the final cross-sector BEE codes, says Roger Dawes, executive director of the Electronics Industry Federation.

Dawes says this task will not be easy, as the ICT sector is made up of different industries, such as broadcasting, communications and suppliers, which are likely to need different thresholds for exempted and qualifying enterprises.

The BEE codes for various sectors determine their own thresholds for exempted and qualifying enterprises, setting a generic range of R5 million to R35 million for small enterprises qualifying for a concession.

The ICT charter working group will meet as early as January to discuss the way forward, Tlhoaele says. The full details of the content of the final codes will be released publicly next week.