Ms Thandokazi Msimang is the current Head of Procurement for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).  GSK is a science-led global healthcare company with a special purpose: to help people do more, feel better, live longer. The company has three global businesses that research, develop and manufacture innovative pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines and consumer healthcare products. Their aim to bring differentiated, high-quality and needed healthcare products to as many people as possible, with their three global businesses, scientific and technical know-how and talented people.

Mr Grant Clarke is the Managing Director of C. Steinweg Logistics, a subsidiary of one of the largest exporters of containerised cargo by rail in Southern Africa, C. Steinweg Bridge (Pty) Ltd.  

Mr. Clarke has a wide range of experience in various industries, and has fostered his career at several blue chip South African companies. His strong problem solving and lateral thinking skills has contributed to his success at the helm of C. Steinweg Logistics, a leading and growing Level 1 B-BBEE Clearing and Forwarding business.

According to a report released by McKinsey Group, SMEs across South Africa represent more than 98 percent of businesses, employ between 50 and 60 percent of the country’s workforce across all sectors, and are responsible for a quarter of job growth in the private sector. Formal SMEs contribute up to 40% of national income. The importance of SMEs is even higher when informal SMEs are included. One can safely say, SMEs are crucial to meeting the challenges of unemployment, inequality and transformation.

For the past decade, the South African Supplier Diversity Council has recognised the vital role black business can play in supporting the National Development Plan for 2030. As such, the SASDC has made it our mission to facilitate linkages between certified black owned businesses and corporate members who support this cause of creating a diverse, transformed and inclusive economy.  To this end, the SASDC provides a host of different advisory and implementation services to its corporate members for enabling supplier diversity in its supply chains and unlocking procurement opportunities for black businesses.

7^th May 2021- Today, the South African Supplier Diversity Council (SASDC) would like to congratulate Swift Worldwide Logistics, a proudly South African Freight Forwarding company with level-1 B-BBEE compliance on successfully partnering with BBC Chartering to move equipment, that will be fitted onto what will become, the world’s largest diamond recovery vessel in the world.

Last week, the multipurpose heavy-lift vessel BBC PEARL, operated by BBC Chartering, successfully loaded two tower units and accompanying accessories in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia. Swift Worldwide Logistics entrusted the German multipurpose and heavy shipping specialist BBC Chartering with the transport of this equipment weighing a total of 423 metric tons from Estonia to South Africa.

How fronting, by form, defeats the substance of B-BBEE

By Sibusiso Mtsetfwa, Manager of Member Services at the South African Supplier Diversity Council

I recently came across a “transformed” 51% Black-owned company who flashed their Level-2 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) credentials to all and sundry as they continued to stand in the front of the line successfully winning tenders and retaining contracts with large corporations that they did business with prior to their “B-BBEE transformation”.

I say “transformed”, because upon closer investigation, their status comes from the 51% shareholding held by a “creatively” registered trust for black employees of the business.  The 49% white shareholders and directors are also the trustees of the trust while the black employees, as beneficiaries, do not have any veto rights or say in the running or decision-making of the trust.  In this case, the actual decision-makers and profit-takers remain white and could now find economic benefit that has flowed through to the trust, since inception more than five years ago.

By Gary Joseph – CEO of the South African Supplier Diversity Council

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world: governments, business leaders, citizens into unimaginable transformation. No matter who you are, where you are from, what you do, you have not remained untouched or unaffected by this pandemic which has threatened humankind’s existence.

In South Africa, one of the most unequal countries in the world, degrees of struggle each individual faces now, is exacerbated by a confluence of inadequate economic growth, widespread unemployment, sharp inequalities, low levels of fixed investment and frail levels of social capital.

Cumulatively, these are having a devastating impact on the living standards, safety, education and health of our people. And whilst some suffer far greater than a privileged few, the truth is - unless action is taken to alleviate this inequality in our economy and society – even the privileged few are doomed to suffer hardship down the line.