Tourism B-BBEE

Tourism Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) expresses the commitment of all stakeholders in the Tourism Sector to the empowerment and transformation of the sector and its commitment to working collectively to ensure that the opportunities and benefits of the Tourism Sector are extended to black South Africans as well.
 
Since the year 2007 government moved away from a narrow form of advancing economic transformation by broadening the scope of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), resulting in Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). The B-BBEE policy, which was legislated under the B-BBEE Act No 53 of 2003, aims to broaden participation in the economy of the country to result in an equitable society through the creation of opportunities for those people who were previously excluded from meaningful economic participation. It seeks to address issues such as the ownership of enterprises, management and control of those enterprises, procurement, enterprise development, skills development, employment equity and socio-economic development.
 
The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) provides strategic direction in the development of policies and strategies that promote enterprise growth, empowerment and equity in the economy. The dti, as the custodian of B-BBEE, mandated all sectors in the South African economy to draw up sector specific charters and codes with the clear targets to address their peculiar transformation challenges. The Minister of Tourism, Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, was the first in government to respond to the call by establishing the Tourism Charter in 2005, and later aligned it to the Codes in terms of Section 9 of the Act. The Minister issued the Tourism B-BBEE Sector Codes on 22 May 2009, which endorse the B-BBEE legislation and sets specific targets for how B-BBEE is implemented in the tourism sector. The Tourism Sector Code is binding on all stakeholders operating in the Sector.
 
Sector Transformation Directorate

Subsequent to the issuing of the Tourism Sector Charter and Codes, the department established the Sector Transformation Directorate to
facilitate and monitor transformation in the tourism sector guided by the Tourism Sector B-BBEE Charter and Scorecard with the main goal of, amongst others, to promote transformation and compliance by both the public and private sector, leveraging public sector spend to encourage transformation through procurement and other government tools as articulated in the Act, and enable beneficiaries to take advantage of the empowerment opportunities coming through as a result of private and public sector compliance.
 
Transformation is vital to ensure the sustainable growth and development of the tourism industry. The department envisages an increase in tourism companies with B-BBEE ratings; an improvement in the number of companies reaching the Tourism Sector Code targets. The department will continue to promote tourism sector transformation as well as the participation and growth of small medium and micro enterprises in the economy of the country.
 
Our objective is to ensure that the benefits of tourism are equitably shared amongst the people of South Africa. Furthermore, to advocate for the empowerment of youth, women and people with disability and cooperatives through enterprise development, entrepreneurship and people development guided by the Scorecard. We will work with other government institutions and the private sector to continue providing support to SMMEs, and we are committed to the government campaign to pay SMMEs on time, within 30 days to ensure their sustainability.
 
Tourism has been positioned as one of the key economic drivers to help reduce unemployment and poverty. We are committed to ensure that our programmes are geared towards the enhancement of job creation, which is of particular importance to our youth.
 
Tourism B-BBEE Charter Council

The department will support the Tourism B-BBEE Charter Council to foster a mutually beneficial partnership of various role players drawn from private (big and small business), public, labour and civil society to oversee the extent of transformation in the Tourism Sector in an open, just and fair manner. In its formation, the Charter Council is required to have an e
quitable composition of stakeholders in the members of the Charter Council and ensure application of good corporate governance principles in the Charter.
 
The key role of the Charter Council is to provide guidance on sector-specific matters effecting B-BBEE in entities within the Tourism Sector, compile reports on the status of broad-based black economic empowerment within the sector, and share information with sector members, approved accreditation agencies and the Minister.
 
Useful documents on Tourism B-BBEE 
  • B-BBEE Act, No 46 of 2013
  • Tourism B-BBEE Sector Charter, gazetted on 18 July 2005
  • Tourism B-BBEE Sector Codes, gazetted on 22 May 2009
Useful links on Tourism B-BBEE funding, verification and others 

 Related Documents

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