{"id":869862,"date":"2026-08-12T11:25:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T09:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869862"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:25:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T09:25:35","slug":"investigation-finds-failures-in-south-african-bee-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/it-services\/869862\/investigation-finds-failures-in-south-african-bee-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation finds failures in South African BEE council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Investigations into the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) ICT sector council have found evidence of dysfunctionality within the group and financial reporting failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of the investigation were shared by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, in response to questions in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malatsi said the investigation into the B-BBEE ICT sector council began at the start of 2025 and has found evidence of several key failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The B-BBEE ICT sector council is established by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies and is responsible for ensuring that businesses in the ICT sector comply with current equality legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also responsible for drafting and reviewing new legislation relevant to economic equality in South Africa’s ICT sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council was investigated following several allegations, including governance failures, financial misconduct, and the deposit of funds into private accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malatsi said that the investigation confirmed the allegation that the council was dysfunctional and had not adequately fulfilled its mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The investigation confirmed that the Third B-BBEE ICT Sector Council was fundamentally dysfunctional and failed to fulfil its legislative mandate,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation also found that these governance failures did not begin with the current council and that key issues had been inherited from the previous council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the investigation’s key findings were that the council had failed to meet its mandatory obligations and had failed to develop and recommend new legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also noted that the council had failed to compile and submit annual monitoring reports to the Minister of Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These governance failures may largely have been due to the council’s failure to adopt a governance framework, a council strategy, or operational guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the investigation’s findings confirmed that dysfunctionality was present within the B-BBEE ICT sector council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial woes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Communications Minister Solly Malatsi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Investigations into the B-BBEE ICT sector council found evidence of poor financial management and a lack of monetary policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation noted that the council lacked a revenue management strategy and did not follow proper procurement policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also found that expenditure was often signed off by someone outside the council, while important procurement documents were often missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with this, several other financial reporting irregularities were found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Finance Subcommittee did not function for approximately six months.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Financial reports were not presented to Council.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Financial reporting consisted largely of bank statements rather than proper management accounts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Annual Financial Statements were not prepared or audited.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Financial reports were inconsistent with the Council’s own financial policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    “The investigation confirmed poor financial reporting, policy non-compliance, a dysfunctional Finance Subcommittee, and inappropriate authorisation of expenditure by persons outside the Third Council,” Malatsi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While the investigation found evidence of several governance and financial reporting failures, it found no evidence of wasteful expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It investigated two separate allegations of fruitless or wasteful expenditure, relating to advertising and council induction costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The advertising allegation was eventually found not to be wasteful, as it successfully attracted four bidders for the council’s strategy facilitator role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Although no bidders met the requirements, the investigation found that the process achieved its intended purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For council induction costs, it was found that R66,980 had been spent on accommodation and R46,000 on flights and shuttle services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Investigators ultimately decided that this spending was justified, as new council members had benefited from the induction process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The allegation that council funds had been deposited into a private bank account was also found to be unsubstantiated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Investigators said the allegation amounted to hearsay because it originated from comments made during an induction process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While rumours had circulated about the financial misconduct, no council member had any first-hand knowledge about the allegation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Investigations into an ICT BEE council found evidence of financial and governance failures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":820783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2087470658603143372","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2173896606764072","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[8620,21457,20317],"class_list":["post-869862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-services","tag-b-bbee","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies-dcdt","tag-solly-malatsi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869862"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869897,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869862\/revisions\/869897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}