BEE Stategy

FER-MIN-ORE GROUP STRATEGY ON BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

The group recognizes the importance of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) in the current political and economic environment. We are committed to making our contribution, developing a sound basis for doing this and achieving a rating as a satisfactory contributor to broad based BEE.

In terms of the DTI's ranking of enterprises using their scorecard, a satisfactory contributor would achieve a score of 40% to 64.9%. A score of 65% and above rates as good. Since our industry sector does not have an empowerment charter, we are guided by the principles outlined in the BEE Code of Good Practice, recently issued by the Government via the DTI.

The DTI scorecard provides for maximum score ratings as follows:

 
Target
1. Equity ownership
20
0
2. Management
10
4
3. Employment equity
10
6
4. Skills development>
20
10
5. Preferential procurement
20
8
6. Enterprise development
10
5
7. Determined by sector or enterprise
10
7
 
100%
40%

It is becoming more widely accepted that black equity ownership is not the most important criterion in addressing broad-based empowerment, and that the overall score is what is important.

The group has taken stock of its position in areas 2 to 7 above and has selected a mix of strategies to achieve the desired satisfactory rating as indicated above. We hope to reach this target within three years.

G A P Andersson
Chairman
August 2005