Cabinet makes a beeline for BEE

GOVERNMENT is working on designing a national black empowerment policy.

On Tuesday, Cabinet endorsed a decision taken at its 5th ordinary meeting on March 9 that the Prime Minister begin wide-ranging consultations on the matter. The policy will embody all existing laws related to black economic empowerment (BEE) as well as initiate new objectives and an implementation strategy.Briefing the media on the decision in Windhoek yesterday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Nangolo Mbumba did not rule out the possibility that the policy would be transformed into formal legislation.In the absence of a law, individual Government Ministries such as Fisheries and Mines and Energy and a number of private sector institutions had made efforts to foster BEE through such mechanisms as affirmative action and other employment equity provisions.A technical committee comprising the office of the Prime Minister, the Ministries of Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs, Mines and Energy, Finance and Information and Broadcasting is to be established and will make up the core working group on the formulation of a BEE policy for Namibia.No deadline has been set for the completion of the document.The taskforce on the black empowerment policy has also been mandated to develop a legal framework for socio-economic empowerment.The envisaged policy is intended to set the vision and basic principles for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the fulfilment of black empowerment objectives.This document is expected to be accompanied by plans for its implementation in various sectors.When Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab addressed Walvis Bay Town Councillors two months ago, he noted progress made by South Africa in fostering black socio-economic empowerment.South Africa has an act in place to regulate the implementation of black empowerment.Gurirab bemoaned the slow pace of empowering women and the socio-economic empowerment of Namibians saying it “must go far beyond the creation of small, new class of wealthy black business persons”.- Additional reporting by Maggi BarnardThe policy will embody all existing laws related to black economic empowerment (BEE) as well as initiate new objectives and an implementation strategy.Briefing the media on the decision in Windhoek yesterday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Nangolo Mbumba did not rule out the possibility that the policy would be transformed into formal legislation.In the absence of a law, individual Government Ministries such as Fisheries and Mines and Energy and a number of private sector institutions had made efforts to foster BEE through such mechanisms as affirmative action and other employment equity provisions.A technical committee comprising the office of the Prime Minister, the Ministries of Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs, Mines and Energy, Finance and Information and Broadcasting is to be established and will make up the core working group on the formulation of a BEE policy for Namibia.No deadline has been set for the completion of the document.The taskforce on the black empowerment policy has also been mandated to develop a legal framework for socio-economic empowerment.The envisaged policy is intended to set the vision and basic principles for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the fulfilment of black empowerment objectives.This document is expected to be accompanied by plans for its implementation in various sectors.When Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab addressed Walvis Bay Town Councillors two months ago, he noted progress made by South Africa in fostering black socio-economic empowerment.South Africa has an act in place to regulate the implementation of black empowerment.Gurirab bemoaned the slow pace of empowering women and the socio-economic empowerment of Namibians saying it “must go far beyond the creation of small, new class of wealthy black business persons”.- Additional reporting by Maggi Barnard