ANCWL calls for share in deal

THE ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) has appealed to government to ensure that 50 percent of the black-owned companies that benefit from a construction industry transformation agreement with seven listed companies are owned by women.

The league also wants the government to determine the price of shares that have been possibly sold by these firms to black South Africans to ensure they have not been sold at an exorbitant price and for 50 percent of these transactions to be ring-fenced for women.

The government should also assist with resources for acquiring these shares and enforce implementation of these transactions within five years, the ANCWL said on Friday.

The league was reacting to the announcement this month that the seven companies had agreed to collectively contribute R1.25 billion over 12 years to a socio-economic development fund and for each of the signatories to the agreement to undertake further transformation initiatives.

Two options

The initiatives include two options: for the firms to become transformed with at least 40 percent equity in the hands of black South Africans or committing to mentor up to three emerging black-owned enterprises to enable them to sustain a cumulative combined annual revenue of at least 25 percent of the mentor firms’ annual revenue by 2023.

The signatories to the agreement are WBHO, Aveng, Group Five, Basil Read, Raubex, Stefanutti Stocks and Murray & Roberts.

The agreement followed negotiations between the SA Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) and government after 15 construction companies concluded settlement agreements with the Competition Commission in 2013 to pay penalties totalling R1.46bn for collusion and bid-rigging.

Meokgo Matuba, the secretary-general of the ANCWL, said the government should monitor the implementation of the agreement and any company that breached the agreement should be banned from doing business with the government and be deregistered.