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ICT: MINISTER INTENDS CLARIFYING POLICY POSITION ON B-BBEE EQUITY EQUIVALENT PROGRAMMES
- 08 October 2024
- Communications & Digital Technologies
- SA Legal Academy
According to Communications & Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi, in its efforts to close ‘the digital divide’ and facilitate ‘connectivity in underserved areas’, his department is exploring ways of ‘mak(ing) room for equity equivalent programmes where local ownership requirements place a blocker on investment’. The Minister remarks are reflected in his speech at a recent Southern Africa telecommunication networks and applications conference in Mpumalanga.
Three days earlier, the Malatsi issued a media statement announcing plans for requesting the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa to ‘urgently consider’ its interpretation of his department’s ‘position on the recognition of equity equivalent programmes’. This with a view to releasing a ‘proposed policy direction’ for public comment – with the intention of clarifying what is meant by equity equivalence in the ICT sector’s broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) codes of good practice. In Malatsi’s view, a ‘policy direction’ would ‘provide the certainty necessary to attract increased investment in ICT and accelerate universal internet access’.
In this context, the statement notes that:
- the ICT sector codes ‘recognise that the global nature of their operations may constrain multinationals in their ability to comply with equity ownership requirements’
- ‘equity equivalents … provide an avenue for factoring in alternative ways for companies to make an impact on South Africa’s socioeconomic development’, and that
- ‘policy clarity on the recognition of equity equivalence schemes’ has long been sought by sector stakeholders.
The ICT sector’s 2012 B-BBEE code of good practice was amended in 2016. It now includes sections spelling out the process to be followed in applying for the recognition of equity equivalent programmes, their measurement and ‘topping up’ procedures.
- speech
- media statement
- revised ICT code of good practice
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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