San/Bushmen rock art
Just as educational toys are meant to help individuals perform diligently in the so-called real world, the BEE Charter is a guiding document for real world implementation. For the sake of turning Charter principles into measurable and realistically attainable goals, a Charter “Scorecard” was established.
The BEE Tourism Scorecard process was initiated by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s appointment of a BEE Steering Committee in July 2004. The scorecard itself outlines, in measurable numeric terms, the goals and progression of the transformative policy, and is divided into two five year terms (the first ending December 2009, the second ending in December 2014).
The scorecard is a relatively simple concept to understand: out of a total of 100%, each enterprise covered by the Charter will earn a score demonstrating how well the enterprise has met the Charter’s requirements. If the enterprise in question has met all its BEE goals, it will score very highly, perhaps achieving a 100% score. The full scorecard is available from the Environmental Affairs and Tourism website. The present author will, however, briefly highlight, as examples, some of the objectives found on the BEE scorecard. The 2009 scorecard had as its aim a 21% black ownership of tourism enterprises; a 30% representation of black directors on respective boards; a 30% representation of black individuals at executive level; and in terms of employment equity, black management should comprise of 35% of all managers, 18% of all managers should be black women, and of the total staff employed, 53% should be previously disadvantaged (28% black women).
The intention is to make it easy to calculate one’s BEE score so that in practice neither a computer nor any other PC components are required in order to do the calculation. Although detractors of BEE argue that its policies have, in practice, done more to create an elite and powerful class than to alleviate the poverty so pervasive in contemporary South Africa, it is generally accepted that the policy is needed to redress past injustices.