The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Act, 2013 (the 'Amendment Act') was gazetted earlier this year on 27 January 2014 (Gazette 37271). This followed a year long public commentary process where interested parties were also encouraged to make submissions to the parliamentary portfolio committee on transformation.

The Amendment Act is an amendment to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003, which came into existence on 1 January 2004. Act 53 of 2007 was an enabling framework which gave wide powers and authority to the Minister of Trade and Industry to issue Codes of Good Practice, which currently contain the scorecards and calculation methodology companies use in order to measure their B-BBEE status. The Amendment Act must therefore not be confused with Revised Codes of Good Practice that were also gazetted recently on 11 October 2013.

Over the next 3 weeks we will highlight some of the most important amendments contained in the Amendment Act.