We have heard rumours about the Empowering Supplier provisions for a couple of months. These include:
- Empowering Supplier status will be done away with; or
- additional criteria will be added to make it easier to become an Empowering Supplier
Government Gazette 40375 dated 28 October 2016 clarifies the issue. In summary, it states:
- all certificates, Affidavits and CIPC Certificates issued before 30 April 2016 will be recognised as an Empowering Supplier while the certificate is still valid.
- any entity measured on or after 01 May 2016 will be an automatic Empowering Supplier until further notice.
I have two concerns with this gazette:
- This Gazette was signed by the Minister on 01 September 2016, but only published on 28 October 2016, a delay of 2 months. Why the delay?
- The status of Empowering Supplier under the MAC and Tourism Sector Codes is unclear. Does this notice include gazetted Sector Codes? I am sure the intention is that it applies across the board, but the gazette does not state this clearly.
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