News & Resources

A few years ago, our company entered into a BEE transaction with BEE partners to address our ownership. In the transaction documents, restrictions were imposed on the BEE partners that they could not sell or encumber their shares for a period of at least ten years. These lock-in provisions were a necessary part of the financing and overall transaction. With the current difficult economic times, our partners want to sell a portion of their shares and are disputing the validity of our lock-in provisions. Are lock-in provisions legally enforceable?

I’m the procurement manager for our company. We have a strong focus on BEE in our business and take great care in our procurement and the BEE position of our suppliers. Accordingly, I have noticed from the BEE certificates of many of our suppliers that they do quite poorly with their priority elements. This is strange, given the risk of dropping levels for non-compliance with these elements. Maybe the priority elements have not had the desired impact envisaged by their introduction?

I am a restaurant owner and my business has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. I want to apply for relief funding, but I heard that my business needs to be B-BBEE compliant in order to qualify for such. How important is B-BBEE compliance in accessing relief assistance for my business?

Covid-19 relief – does my race, gender, age or disability matter?I am a small business owner and I am hoping to apply for financial relief from the Covid-19 pandemic. Will my company’s B-BBEE status or factors such as race, gender and disability be considered when I apply for the relief?

My business and prospects during the COVID-19 lockdown has all but died. My BEE consultant has however contacted me to remind me that it is time to renew my BEE certificate. Is it really worth doing so in this time?

Our company will probably go over the R50 million mark this year. This will require us to verify as a Generic enterprise under the DTI BEE Codes of Good Practice. I am very concerned about the impact this will have on our BEE level, as I have heard that the procurement element in particular can lead to getting a lower BEE level. Is there anything I can prepare for with our company’s procurement to avoid such a situation?

Our company is heavily reliant on government tenders for work. There have been rumours about government intending to introduce new legislation that will change the tendering environment. Can you shed any light on these rumours?

I’m the principal of a small real estate agency that I started with my wife. Our turnover is about R4 million a year and I have 10 people, mostly agents, working for us. We are all aware of the new Property Practitioners Act. However, I understand that there are also BEE implications for small property agencies like mine? I’m very concerned about this and wonder if you could explain how it will affect my agency.

From our recent BEE verification I’ve come to understand that demographics have quite a role to play when it comes to your planning for a good BEE scorecard. However, I’m not quite sure exactly where it comes into play and how you need to plan for this. Can you shed some light on how I must consider demographics in our BEE planning?

I understand that recent BEE amendments now make provision for bursaries to be recognised under skills development. Our company has a bursary programme through which we give two bursaries a year to students. We haven’t in the past been able to recognise these bursaries for skills development purposes. It sounds like this may have changed now? Will we now be able to?

I run a small accounting firm. We have always tried to be as BEE compliant as possible given our economic realities. I understand that a revised BEE charter for the accounting profession has been released for comment which introduces some key changes for our industry. Is this true?

I have a young business that is developing well. But I need to appoint more staff. I’ve heard that there are tax incentives for employing youth. How do these work?