June 29, 2005

By Roy Cokayne

Pretoria - Agreement has been reached after "an uphill battle" on the black empowerment scorecard for the property sector, which contains two surprise elements.

The scorecard, which will apply to estate agents, listed property companies and property management companies, contains targets and weightings for development investment in rural areas, former homelands and townships and for the disposal of assets to broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) enterprises.

Andy Tondi, the chairman of the property charter steering committee, said yesterday that this was the first BEE charter to include targets and weightings for development investment and the disposal of assets.

He said consensus had been reached on the scorecard after weekly meetings over the past three months.

It had been "an uphill battle" to reach agreement on the scorecard. The most contentious elements had been the targets and weightings for ownership, procurement and enterprise development.

The target for procurement is 70 percent and the weighting in the scorecard is the highest at 70 points out of 100.

In terms of ownership, the target for voting rights for black men and women is 25 percent plus 1 percent and the weighting is 6 points. Extra points are to be awarded for giving voting rights to black women, which has a weighting of 3 points and a target of 10 percent.

The weighting for economic interest to which black people are entitled is 7 points and the target is also 25 percent plus 1 percent.

Companies will score 3 points for black board members, with the target at 40 percent; and 2 points for black women board members, with a target of 20 percent.

Tondi said white women did not count in the BEE scorecard, but were recognised in terms of employment equity and gender transformation.

Development investment as a percentage of total annual investment has a weighting of 8 points and the target is 10 percent, while the disposal of assets to broad-based BEE-accredited enterprises as a percentage of total asset disposal has a weighting of 9 points and a target of 35 percent.

Tondi defined underdeveloped areas as those that had never received adequate infrastructure development investment or attention from the previous dispensation or the private sector. They included rural areas and those that were previously referred to as homelands and black townships.

He said the charter aimed "to encourage the development of shopping centres, industrial parks and so on in these areas".

The target relating to disposals would give companies the opportunity to contribute to transformation when they disposed of assets.

Tondi said the final draft charter and scorecard would be submitted to the public works department tomorrow for consideration.

If the department was happy with the draft, it would be submitted to the trade and industry department, which in turn would take it to the cabinet and the parliamentary portfolio committees "so they can ... decide whether it meets the transformation objectives of government".

"If all goes well, the charter will be effective from January 1," he said.