A draft broad-based black economic empowerment code of good practice for the petroleum and liquid fuels sector is expected to be gazetted ‘by (the) end of October’ for public comment. This, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch, is according to a speech delivered on behalf of Mineral Resources & Energy Deputy Minister Bavelile Hlongwa during a women in energy roundtable discussion held last month in Johannesburg. Since a draft code for the sector was released two years ago for stakeholder input, the one to which the speech referred could be either a revised version or intended to begin the public consultation process afresh.
Either way, among other things it will seek to address the ‘lack of set-asides’ from imported crude and finished products for independent non-refining wholesalers; the ‘poor monitoring, evaluation and enforcement of compliance targets’; ‘untransformed petroleum site and retail networks’; ‘inadequate petroleum industry entrepreneurship training for new entrants’; the paucity of opportunities for ‘meaningful operational involvement and active participation’ by black people across the sector; and the difficulties they experience in accessing markets, credit and other financing. While, in the Deputy Minister’s view, the time has come for a broader ‘energy sector code’, the speech delivered on her behalf did not elaborate.
To read the speech, please click on the following link: