Two of South Africa’s tech giants – Vodacom and Samsung – are leading the transformational charge with the recent announcements of their Level 1 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment ratings.
For Vodacom, this means one jump up the ratings, a result of accelerating a concerted transformation strategy, ensuring the local economy is structured and transformed to enable the meaningful participation of the majority of South African citizens.
For Samsung, the certification comes hot on the heels of its first Level 1 rating in 2019, showing its commitment to using technology to not only innovate, but as a tool for economic inclusivity and positive transformation.
“The certification demonstrates our dedication not only to operational excellence but to remain an active and enthusiastic contributor to the future of the South African economy,” Hlubi Shivanda, director of business innovation and corporate affairs at Samsung South Africa said.
It also underpins Samsung’s ongoing committment to contributing meaningfully to sustainable transformation across its entire value chain. This can be seen not only through the company’s focus on the participation of black people in management, but through several investment programmes it has launched over the years.
According to Shivanda, this includes the R280 million equity equivalent investment programme in 2019, aimed at contributing nearly R1 billion to the South African economy at large, as well as the Samsung Engineering Academy.
Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said: “For Vodacom, a company with strong local roots, our Level 1 rating is an exciting achievement. These results are indicative of our commitment to supporting government’s national imperative goals involving the support of black SMMEs, youth employment, skills development and uplifting local communities still trapped in abject poverty.”
Procurement is one of the elements that helped Vodacom attain its latest rating, with the telco spending R35.9 billion on BEE status companies with Level 4 and above. Of this, Vodacom spent R13 billion with 51% black-owned suppliers and R15 billion on procuring services from 30% black woman-owned suppliers.
Vodacom said it procured services to the tune of R3.3 billion from black-owned qualifying small enterprises, R2.3 billion on black suppliers from designated groups, while R1.3 billion was spent on acquiring services from black-owned exempt micro enterprises.
The organisation noted that a focus on enterprise creation and development was key to the ICT sector, adding that it spent R243 million on supplier development and R407 million on SMME development across seven provinces.
“Critically, the group paid R981 million to black-owned SMME suppliers in three days or less from time of invoice. This is important as local research shows the majority of SMMEs fail because of the failure by companies to honour invoice payments for services rendered,” said Joosub.
As part of its commitment to its employees, Vodacom invested a total of R363 million in skills development, of which 76% was skills spend to black people, including black employees. This included internal and external bursaries, training of staff members, graduate and learnership programmes, and training of youth across the country through the Vodacom Youth Academy, among others.
As an active corporate citizen, Vodacom is one of the pioneers of social transformation through ICT. In the past financial year, the company invested over R183 million in community projects to transform the lives of black people through the Vodacom Foundation.
“Our Level 1 BEE status is a very clear demonstration of our commitment to our country, sharpens our competitive edge and gives us greater credibility. We are serious about the transformation agenda and we won’t be deterred in our resolve to play an active role in moving South Africa forward,” concluded Joosub.
Sources:
- https://nowinsa.co.za/2020/empower-sa/samsungs-transformation-efforts-garner-another-level-1-bbb-ee-rating/
- https://www.itweb.co.za/content/8OKdWqDYRnXvbznQ
- https://africabusinesscommunities.com/tech/tech-news/south-africa-vodacom-achieves-level-1-bee-status/
