Presidentâ s Podium â the BEE Story

Where should the Computer Society stand on the issue of the BEE â Charterâ for the IC
T sector? Having played an integral part in its development, both as interested
party and as provider of the Secretariat functions, in the period up till the i
nitial handover of the draft to government, and as a participant in the Steering
Committee process that took over in 2005, we have a keen interest in seeing the
transformation of the industry taking place as quickly, efficiently and fairly
as possible.
I have personally been involved in the entire process, from its inception in 200
2, both as a representative of industry and as a member of the Task Team that ca
rried out much of the early work on behalf of the Charter Working Group.
It is extremely disappointing that we have declined from those heady days of con
sensus and cooperation to the current status of expressing often misguided frust
ration because the process has been stalled for the last couple of years. I see
that Andile Thloaéle was quoted this week on ITWeb as saying he knows of no re
ason why the Charter has not been passed for gazetting. (I also note that he is
acknowledged as a member of the Steering Committee and, as such, should not be
making statements, since only the Chairman is so mandated. However, I am prepar
ed to follow the precedent, in the interests of progress.)
There is a very valid reason for the DTI not gazetting the proposed Codes of Goo
d Practice for the ICT sector. It is quite simply that the Department must be a
ssured that the Codes have been signed off by all the parties, and they have not
. The reason they have not is that some of the targets set in the latest versio
n are not reasonable and imposing them will force some companies out of business
. The law (read DTI) requires that any variations from the generic Codes must b
e substantiated as being justified through research.
Neither the Steering Committee nor the Working Group have commissioned the resea
rch that would prove the case either way. Hence the impasse.
Comments have been made that government must lead the way out of the deadlock.
I certainly agree that leadership is needed but do not necessarily ask governmen
t to provide it. I believe that there are only two ways to take this process fo
rward. One is to scrap the notion of sectoral Codes for the ICT industry altoge
ther - as a transversal industry, it would make sense to apply the generic Codes
, which could be done immediately.
The other is for the leaders of the industry bodies and other stakeholders to re
convene the Working Group, grasp the nettle of carrying out the research to pro
ve the outcomes of imposing the disputed targets and submit an appropriately rev
ised set of proposed Codes back to government.
Letâ s do one or the other, urgently, for the sake of our future, lest we be accuse
d of failing our country and our people.
Adrian Schofield, President
Computer Society South Africa