Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment - The Act

The Act

The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (53/2003): Codes of Good Practice on Black Economic Empowerment was gazetted on 9 February 2007 in the government gazette 29617. It was put in place to replace earlier editions of the act. An Interpretive Guide was added in June 2007.

The Act is broken up into 9 Subsections

• Code 000: Framework for Measuring Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 100: Measurement of the Ownership Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 200: Measurement of the Management Control Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 300: Measurement of the Employment Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 400: Measurement of the Skills Development Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 500: Measurement of the Preferential Procurement Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 600: Measurement of the Enterprise Development Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 700: Measurement of the Socio-Economic Development Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
• Code 800: Measurement of Qualifying Small Enterprises of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment

The first Codes of Good Practice, dealing mostly with Ownership and Management, were released 1 November 2004, and the second set, incorporating special codes for SMMEs (small, medium and micro enterprises) and the remaining 5 pillars, were released 20 December 2005. These codes were open to public comment until end March 2006.

The transitional period between narrow based BEE and broad-based B-BBEE originally expired on 9 February 2008 but was extended to 31 August 2008. BEE is referred to by the ANC as 'positive discrimination'.