Agencies
12 February 2009
The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) together with the South African
National Accreditation System (SANAS) today awarded certificates to the
countryâs first Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Verification
Agencies in Pretoria.
The agencies that acquired B-BBEE accreditation status include:
1. BEE Empowered,
2. BEE Matrix,
3. BEE Verification Agency,
4. DRGSiyaya,
5. Emex Trust,
6. Empowerdex,
7. Empowerlogic,
8. Honeycomb,
9. National Empowerment Rating Agency (NERA) â Gauteng,
10. NERA â KwaZulu-Natal (KZN); and
11. NERA â Western Cape.
Emex Trustee, Mella Msiza, said the company had learned a great deal from
the process as a BEE scorecard and supplier verification agency. âAs a new
company, we are excited that we were afforded an equal opportunity to acquire
skills that would enable us to make a livelihood and also empower our
communities, by transferring this skill to them. And we are now more
competitive, as opposed to when we started. We now meet the standards set by
SANAS,â acknowledged Msiza.
The occasion was viewed as monumental and historic by the dti and SANAS
alike, as it marks the start of a fundamental change in the history of B-BBEE
verification. The overall aim of accreditation is to instil confidence in
entities that subject themselves to B-BBEE verification, and establish a
measurement of excellence against which agencies should strive, in terms of
compliance with B-BBEE criteria.
Nomonde Mesatywa, Chief Director of BEE at the dti, said that the awarding
of certificates was another fundamental milestone in the evolution of BEE, as
the eleven companies were the first group of Verification Agencies (VAs) to
have fulfilled all the accreditation requirements.
âWe congratulate these companies and trust that this will give credence to
the verification process. This represents the beginning of a phase in BEE that
will be marked by credibility, reliability, impartiality and the harmonisation
of policies, procedures, guidelines, and standards, thus creating a credible
and regulated environment for measuring, monitoring and evaluating B-BBEE
compliance,â said Mesatywa.
She further stated that this was an ongoing process, which would be refined;
in order to ensure that accreditation of other agencies was expedited.
For more information, contact:
Sidwell Medupe
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 073 522 6801
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Issued by:
Department of Trade and Industry
12 February 2009
