Gift or not?
What exactly has economic development minister Ebrahim Patel agreed to with AnheuserBusch InBev and SABMiller? Does it include a generous bonus dividend for the beneficiaries of the Zenzele scheme, or is it a loan?
The day before the competition commission released its recommendation on the proposed merger between the two beer groups, Patel’s department issued an “information note”, which appears to be the actual agreement between the merging parties and government. Releasing it the day before the commission’s big announcement seemed designed to remind whoever was paying attention that the EDD was not a department without purpose. We all know about the jobs and the regional head office and the investment fund and the local supply chain, but few knew about the Zenzele promise. In the department’s version of the agreement AB InBev, headed by Carlos Brito, says it recognises and supports the Zenzele scheme and its objectives.
The department’s note then goes on to offer a remarkably generous “enhancement” to the current scheme: “a special dividend payment roughly equivalent to the total gross dividends paid to the Zenzele participants from the inception of the Zenzele Scheme in 2010 up to November 2015”.
That is just about everything Katishi Masemola, general secretary of the Food & Allied Workers’ Union, wants for the 9,136 SAB employees who are members of the scheme. But, says Masemola, it’s not what he is being offered. The merging parties also say this is not what they are offering. Masemola dismisses this as only a loan and wants something better.
By the time of the Financial Mail going to press Patel had not responded with his interpretation of the crucial sentence. What are the chances of the minister wanting to review his agreement to cut a better deal for a constituency close to his heart? Slight, say sources close to the department.