B-BBEE Ownership Exemption For Multinationals

The Department of Trade and Industry ("DTI") has itself acknowledged that there may exist multinationals that have global practices which prevent them from diluting their ownership and complying with the ownership element required of B-BBEE.

The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment ("B-BBEE") Amended Codes of Good Practice ("Codes") highlight that certain companies are required to be rated on their ownership element in the B-BBEE scorecard. For local operations, this can already be somewhat of a challenge but much has recently been debated on the amplified challenge which foreign operations face in circumstances in which they are reluctant to dilute any ownership component of their operations – this in the context of a political and social landscape of which they have very limited knowledge.