New Agriculture Sector Code gazetted 29 December 2012

We draw your attention to the gazetting of the AgriBEE Sector Code for Agriculture by the Minister on 28 December 2012.

Whilst the classification of Measured Entities as Generic (turnover of R35m or more per annum), Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSE’s) (turnover greater than R5m and less than R35m per annum) and Exempt Micro Enterprises (EME’s) (turnover less than R5m per annum) remains unchanged, QSE’s now have to comply with 5 of 7 elements of 20 points each as opposed to the 4 of 7 elements usually applied to QSE’s in terms of the Codes of Good Practice.

The significant changes for Generic Enterprises include:

1. Ownership points can be scored either on the Ownership indicator, the Land Ownership indicator or both, but always limited to the weighting of 20% for the element.
2. The 20 points in the Land Ownership indicator are allocated to “Commercial agricultural land transferred or sold to black people” based on a target of 30% of the total land owned.
3. Employment Equity points have been reduced from 15 to 10 points before the 3 bonus points.
4. Skills Development points have been increased from 15 to 20 points with 2 bonus points for spend on black employees participating in Adult Basic Education Training of a certain level.
5. Enterprise Development points have been reduced from 15 to 10 points with 2 bonus points where the contributions lead directly to at least a 5% increase in employment.
6. Socio-Economic Development (SED) points have been increased from 5 to 10 points with 1 or 2 bonus points based on contributions or the lease of land or capital assets.
7. SED points can be scored either on the SED indicator, the Land Availability indicator or both, but always limited to the weighting of 10% for the element.
8. The 10 points in the Land Availability indicator are based on a target of 10% of the total land owned.