10 March 2006
	INTRODUCTION Look BEHIND the HEADLINES By Sibonelo Radebe Transfer of ownership is the most important factor in ensuring the buy-in of the business community

Granted transfer of ownership is more important than any other factor in ensuring the buy-in of SA business to the ideal of BEE. However, ownership is just one aspect of the wide-ranging BEE programme and does little in the short term to address the desperate situation of previously disadvantaged communities. Seeing this situation the Department of Trade and Industry is developing the codes of good practice which seek to ensure that BEE does not beging and end with equity deals. Ownership accounts for only 20% of the total scorecard. The other 80% is dedicated to long-term human development programmes such as transformation at board and top management level, which accounts for a further 10%; employment equity (20%); skills development (20%); procurement (20%); enterprise development (10%) and the residual element accounting for the remaining 10%. A trend is emerging where different companies, as defined by their material conditions, do well on different aspects of the scorecard. For example, companies in specialised fields such as engineering are faced with a skills shortage and may lag behind on the promotion of black people into senior management positions while doing well in skills development or corporate social investment. This section of the magazine ranks companies on the JSE based on a single aspect of the scorecard.