With the Zumocracy (hopefully not a zoomocracy) comes a new cabinet and new minister of trade and industry. A notice from the Presidency's website contains the list of new ministers and their deputies. The one we BEE-types are most concerned about is the new minister and his deputies. And here they are
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry (1) Thandi Tobias
Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry (2) Maria Ntuli
Rob my man – you have a hell of a job on your hands. I am only aware of the mess that is BEE, but I am almost willing to bet that the rest of the department is in a similar state. I was sent an SMS on Thursday informing me that the outgoing (and apparently pissed-off) minister had gazetted the construction sector charter under section 9. The sender remarked that said (now ex) minister was trying to push a series of things through to make his successor's life a misery.
We do know that he is going to receive a series of challenges to Mphalwa's proclamations. Ivan van der Merwe of the NABC has taken ABVA and the DTI to the competition commission over Notice 354 of 2009. And he is completely correct. If there ever was any discussion as to whom this notice applies, the dti's website makes it very clear that it applies to everyone. And I quote
as from 1 August 2009 certificates issued by VAs that are accredited and those that are not yet accredited but have received a valid pre-assessment letter from SANAS will be acceptable in the market
This must be stopped – it has no legal standing or substance and smacks of arbitrariness.
And if Rob thought that was all he was facing – he'd do well to read the opinion on the verification manual and interpretive guide prepared by Kevin Lester and Safiyya Patel of Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs. I have posted it without their permission, although Kevin did tell me that the DTI were aware of it.