Black Economic Empowerment

GijimaAst regards itself as a New generation South African ICT Company, wholly committed to transformation goals and objectives. We see transformation as an opportunity for further growth and development in line with the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act, the Employment Equity Act and the draft ICT Charter. To this end, GijimaAst focuses on entrenching empowerment on a more sustainable platform in the business to ensure effective participation of black people in terms of ownership, control and skilled occupations. Our transformation strategy is broad-based and we focus on all seven pillars of empowerment.
GijimaAst has been independently rated by Empowerdex as a Level 3 Contributor to broad based black economic empowerment with an AA Empowerdex rating. Additionally, GijimaAst was recognised by Financial Mail as the 8th most empowered company out of the top 200 listed companies on the JSE.

A summary of our empowerment credentials are listed below:

1.1. Equity Ownership GijimaAst has black equity ownership of 45%. The major black shareholder is the Guma Group with direct shareholding of 37%. Other institutional shareholders and individual shareholders constitute the additional 8% of black ownership in the company.

1.2. Management Control

GijimaAst is committed to the transformation of the management structure in the company. Currently, 50% of the GijimaAst Board is black (5 out of 10), with one black female non-executive director. Additionally, the Executive Management team has black representation of 56%, also with one black female Executive.

1.3. Employment Equity

Employment Equity is a process aimed at the eradication of all forms of discrimination and eliminating past imbalances experienced by historically disadvantaged individuals in South Africa. GijimaAst is committed to maintaining 100% compliance with the requirements of the Employment Equity Act and increasing the demographic representation of black and female employees at all levels in the organisation. Currently, 36% of all employees (over 3100 employees) are black and 32% of all employees are female.

1.4. Preferential Procurement

GijimaAst has implemented a formal procurement programme that has ensured that a minimum of 45% of all procurement is spent with BEE suppliers. Currently 51% of all procurement is from black suppliers.

1.5. Skills Development

Members of our permanent staff benefit from occupationally related training/learning sponsored by the organisation to equip them with skills and knowledge required for improved performance in their jobs. The learning programmes may be in the form of short learning programmes, skills programmes, learnerships and formal qualifications offered by higher educational institutions.
In addition we also run formal internships/learnerships (in line with the requirements of the Isett Seta) with learners predominantly coming from tertiary institutions and then being mentored into skilled staff over a period of time to become fully fledged employees with the relevant hands on experience.

1.6. Enterprise Development

GijimaAst's National Partnership Network (NPN) is aimed at addressing three key issues: GijimaAst's own business growth and competitive imperatives, SMME development (enterprise development) and the improvement of our corporate citizenship. To this end we have engaged SMMEs nationwide to foster sustainable strategic business relationships. We have made a considered move to partake in enabling "historically marginalised enterprises - both past and present - by investing resources in this regard. GijimaAst has ensured that all SMME partners are formally accredited to deliver the necessary services and solutions to our clients.

1.7. Social Responsibility

GijimaAst has been involved in various social responsibility projects and all projects are considered under the rules of the codes of good practice for broad based black economic empowerment. As such our social responsibility initiatives are focused on education, health care and initiatives in rural areas. The initiatives are not once of programs but sustainable investments to ensure that the recipients gain value from our association with them.

Conclusion

GijimaAst has made significant progress in key areas of black economic empowerment and we will continue with efforts to realise the full vision of Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment within the group. Our position as the leading listed empowered ICT Company delivering a complete range of professional services and solutions is of great value to our clients, shareholders and staff. GijimaAst will continue to focus on transformation at the highest levels in the organisation whilst continuing to deliver world class ICT services and solutions.  Our "AA" Empowerdex rating (Level 3 contributor to BBBEE) is the best in the ICT industry for a listed services and solutions company and is testament to our commitment to broad based empowerment.

Click here to download a copy of our Empowerdex Certificate.