Businesses in the transport sector will have only themselves to blame when the string of charters they insisted on come back to haunt them.
The sector is on course to produce eight subsector black economic empowerment (BEE) charters plus one principal charter, raising fears of a regulatory nightmare.
Businesses in the sector argued that a single charter will cause problems for different transport subsectors that are at different stages of progress on empowerment. The bus subsector has apparently made huge progress in BEE and therefore should not have the same targets as the maritime subsector, whose case is complicated by foreign ownership.
As a result, for the purpose of BEE charter, the sector has been divided into the following subsectors: maritime; clearing and forwarding; road freight; bus; aviation; rail; state-owned entities; and taxis.
These subsectors are very different and cannot be bound by a single BEE document, says Eyethu Ships Agencies director Chris Magagula, who played a significant role in the drafting of the maritime subsector charter.
There is, however, a dissenting view that the sector could have drawn up a single document that takes into account - by means of exemptions - the differences in the subsectors. There is also a principal transport charter that covers the subsectors and guards against inconsistencies and contradictions that may arise from the string of transport subsector charters.
The principal sector charter is a comprehensive document in its own right. It covers all aspects of the broad-based BEE approach: equity; skills and enterprise development; employment equity; and corporate social investment.
The principal charter prescribes that a minimum of 25,1% of the transport sector should be in black hands in five years' time. Sources say that some subsectors - such as the bus industry - which have already made inroads into empowerment, have been given a higher black equity target. The taxi industry, which is already dominated by blacks, will be encouraged to empower women.
The charter also prescribes that 40% of management should be black in five years' time. Of this target, 25% should be women and 3% people with disabilities.
It is reasonable to assume that the principal charter will rule the sector. The subsector charters are likely to gather dust and only the consultants who helped draw them up will have benefited.
The partitioning of the transport sector has led to delays in the process, which could have been finalised within a year. The transport sector started discussing its charter more than two years ago, but has been held back by concerns among the road freight and aviation industries, whose continuing delays have undermined the consultative nature of the process.
The two industries are reported to be deadlocked on the question of direct and indirect BEE ownership. "Certain big companies wanted to have their empowerment schemes that lacked transparency' recognised by the charter," says a source close to the process.
The source also says that the road freight and aviation industries have done themselves a disservice by delaying a process that allows them a say in the charter formation. Matters have reached a point where the transport ministry may pass the principal charter without waiting for input from that sector, says the source.
Attempts to obtain comment from the transport ministry have not been successful.
