An upbeat President Jacob Zuma said his meeting on Friday with the Presidential Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council touched on several pertinent matters including economic growth and inclusiveness.
“We’ve looked at a number of issues which the council was advising on, which are important in so far as our programmes of economic growth, the inclusiveness which should be there et cetera,” Zuma said addressing reporters at the Union Buildings as he emerged from the lengthy meeting.
“We’re therefore very happy with the meeting happy today.”
The council and the department of trade and industry were giving reports at Friday’s meeting. Discussions in the meeting centred around the reports presented by the two institutions.
“We have given the task to the officials to work on specific details. Instead of waiting for the annual meeting next year, we will be meeting in November to look into those details so that by the time we finish the year, we will be ready to hit the ground running,” said Zuma.
The council is mandated to advise government on the implementation of the amended Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act which was signed in 2014, reviewing progress in achieving the goals of B-BBEE, advising government draft transformation charters and facilitating partnerships between organs of the state and the private sector that will advance the objectives of B-BBEE Act.
Koko Khumalo, chairperson of the council said her organisation remained deeply concerned on the implementation of the Act.
“Ours remains [a task of] advising government on the implementation of the Act, or lack thereof. Of course we do have concerns as to whether every province has a strategy to implement the Act or not. We’re all aware of the state of this country, that the majority wants to be part of the economy and be included and be included in the economy,” said Khumalo.
Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies, Minister of Labour Mildred Oliphant and Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi were also at the meeting as they are also members of the Council.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
