Corporate Responsibility » Sustainability » Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE)

The Group implements a clearly defined programme in respect of the codes of the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act (Act 53 of 2003). The programme is discussed below in terms of those codes.

Black ownership and decision-making
The codes which set the requirements for Black ownership and decision-making influence are the direct responsibility of the board of Shoprite Holdings.

Preferential procurement
Ongoing updating of the procurement database shows a marked increase – more than 10% during the period covered by the research – in the value of goods bought from BEE compliant businesses. This is a direct result of the Group’s policy of assisting black suppliers to establish and develop their businesses as well as the encouragement given to suppliers to improve their BEE status.

Enterprise Development

• Greenfields project
  By levelling the playing fields, this project enables emerging BEE suppliers to compete on an equal footing with established suppliers. Small BEE suppliers who are able to deliver products to the standards set by the Group are assisted in various ways such as the structuring of deliveries and payments. Freshmark, the Group’s fruit and vegetable procuring arm, is particularly active in this regard and it supports and assists 358 small farmers in the countries in which it does business to produce to the required quality standards. In alliance with ComMark Trust, a nonprofit organisation supported by the United Kingdom Department of Agriculture, Freshmark annually presents courses on food safety for emerging farmers among its suppliers in KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland with a view to their ultimately obtaining GlobalGAP accreditation.
  As part of its assistance to low-income communities, Freshmark plays a major role in a project to assist 89 aspirant farmers who had received land on the Vaal River in 2006 under the Government’s land restitution programme but lacked the capacity and resources to begin farming. A mentor system was introduced in a private initiative with Freshmark, which also provides a ready market for all the produce harvested on the farm.
• Nyama Nyama Emnandi
  The aim of this ambitious project is to assist emerging farmers in South Africa to make a success of their businesses. In pursuing this objective the Group works closely with the Department of Agriculture, various provincial governments as well as local government structures. The Group’s role is to provide those from among these farmers who have achieved the required standards, with a ready and stable market through its Shoprite and Checkers chains. With most initial difficulties resolved, the project has matured to the point where it is gaining substantially in momentum. A constant stream of top-quality livestock is now flowing through the markets of the Western Cape and Gauteng. The project is being extended to the Eastern Cape and the Karoo area.

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