{"id":3205,"date":"2012-11-07T08:17:08","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T08:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3205"},"modified":"2012-11-07T08:17:08","modified_gmt":"2012-11-07T08:17:08","slug":"bee-charities-segregation-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3205","title":{"rendered":"BEE charities: Segregation is back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Charities could face ruin over a government proposal that firms could lose black economic empowerment (BEE) points if they donate to charities that do not have 100 percent black beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

Some charities believe the proposal means that any firm that donates to a charity that helps a white, coloured or Indian person may not be able to claim points for its BEE scorecard.<\/p>\n

It could also mean that if just one white child or person is among a group of black people the charity is helping, the firm that donates to it could lose it points.<\/p>\n

A BEE scorecard is used by the government to measure a company\u2019s BEE compliance. Those that comply do business more easily with other companies also wanting to increase their scorecard and are favoured by the government in all aspects relating to business.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated attempts since Monday for a response and clarity from the Department of Trade and Industry, all it would say was: \u201cAll stakeholders who have concerns and objections are requested to make use of the 60-day period to make their submission… We will not be in a position to comment\/respond to the questions as we do not want to pre-empt the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amended changes to the BEE Codes of Good Practice are on the department\u2019s website and up for public comment until December 2.<\/p>\n

Legislation that is in place allows for charities to assist all races, but lower points are scored when companies assist organisations where less than 75 percent of the recipients are black.<\/p>\n

Bridget Brun, a Durban BEE agency head, said she hoped the proposed amendment was an error.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they [the department] have realised what they have done. Think of organisations such as Girls\u2019 and Boys\u2019 Town or Childline,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis amendment will have a huge effect. It means if the charity benefits any Indian, white, coloured or even a Mozambican or Zimbabwean child, companies will not be able to claim points on their BEE scorecard. We are now going to have segregated facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharities will not help white children if the companies which support them withdraw support because they can\u2019t claim the points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erika Petersen-Holmes, a partner in the commercial and corporate law department at Shepstone and Wylie in Durban, agreed, saying: \u201cAlmost all charities have at least one white beneficiary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could result in those charities receiving no corporate donor funding, or those charities rejecting white beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Hatton-Jones, of retail giant Spar, which gives many charities, orphanages and NGOs large cash and food donations every year, said she was \u201cdistressed and disgusted\u201d by the proposed change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to change what we do. Since when do we put a colour to those in need?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Childline head Joan van Niekerk said BEE laws were going from difficult to ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know the race of the child who phones us. It\u2019s inappropriate to ask, \u2018Are you black, and how black are you?\u2019 This is a different kind of apartheid. It\u2019s extremely distressing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Van Niekerk said charities were pragmatic about funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no such thing as a free lunch. We have to be practical and realistic about funding now. This corporate social responsibility money is something companies are obligated to give and we know the rules up front. If this goes through it will now be far more difficult to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackie Branfield, of child crisis organisation BobbiBear, said it was the first that she had heard of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, 99 percent of the children we help are black, but we are certainly not going to turn away that 1 percent who could be a white or Indian child. Where\u2019s our democracy, where is our new South Africa?\u201d<\/p>\n

Durban Chamber of Commerce CEO Andrew Layman said worthwhile social upliftment projects would suffer. \u201cThe implications could be severe,\u201d he said. IOL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charities could face ruin over a government proposal that firms could lose black economic empowerment (BEE) points if they donate to charities that do not have 100 percent black beneficiaries. Some charities believe the proposal means that any firm that donates to a charity that helps a white, coloured or Indian person may not be … Continue reading “BEE charities: Segregation is back”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[355,214,1776,157,12250],"class_list":["post-3205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-bee","tag-black-empowerment","tag-charity","tag-racism","tag-south-africa"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/charity.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3205"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3208,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3205\/revisions\/3208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}