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[Karin Johansson] Royal Bafokeng Holdings walked away with top honours at this year’s BusinessMap Foundation Black Economic Empowerment Awards at a gala dinner in Sandton last night.
The investment arm of the Royal Bafokeng Nation was awarded top BEE deal for its R12,1 billion transaction with platinum producer Impala Platinum.
“The only way to encourage real and sustainable empowerment is to honour those companies whose empowerment credentials meet the most stringent criteria that we set for each award. A major criticism of the so-called first wave of black economic empowerment was that faulty financing structures meant the high-profile deals were bound to fail – and deal an unintentional blow to the aims of true empowerment. The awards panel took a tough stance in reviewing the candidates for these awards,” said Colin Reddy, BusinessMap empowerment research director.
The deal has been praised for its truly broad-based nature with the entire 350000-strong Bafokeng community set to benefit.
Other winners included empowerment group Sekunjalo and biotechnology company Bioclones for top BEE partnership, plastics manufacturer Razco Plastics for top black business, banking group Standard Bank for top commercial financier of BEE, the Industrial Development Corporation for top development financier of BEE and state-owned electricity company Eskom and the Trade and Industry Department for the top public sector award.
“It has been a long and tedious journey for this institution to develop policy that has been fairly innovative compared with such policies elsewhere in the world. They have also made compromises that suit both the local and global business arena while being mindful of our own domestic circumstances,” said Reddy.
