In October this year, the BEE commission planned to issue about 50 preliminary and final findings against companies for contraventions of the B-BBEE act. What are these contraventions? One of them is fronting. A major form of non-compliance is fronting, or the introduction of spurious schemes that purport to introduce black shareholders (sometimes a domestic worker) without assigning any benefits to them. This enhances a company’s B-BBEE status and increases its chance of winning contracts. Fronting is prevalent and some companies have already been issued with findings and more are following, according to the BEE Commissioner Zodwa Ntuli. Talking to Teboho Mafodi and Bulelani Balabala about the real state of B-BBEE and its transformation – or better yet, the lack there off – is Mr Keith Levenstein, founder of EconoServ. He is the moderator of the B-BBEE forum on Business Masters. Keith has been involved in broad-based black economic empowerment since 2005. His business is well known to all in the industry. Their aim in this forum is to assist businesses in becoming BEE compliant.
