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• › The Chief Executive
• › Group Executive: Corporate Affairs
• › The Founder and Chairman of Altron
• › The Group Company Chief Executive Officers

• › Introduction
• › Code 100 – Ownership
• › Code 200 – Board and Management Control
• › Code 300 – Employment Equity
• › Code 400 – Skills Development
• › Code 500 – Preferential Procurement
• › Code 600 – Enterprise Development
• › Code 700 – CSI or Socio-Economic Development (SED)

GROUP STRUCTURE     TRANSFORMATION FOR THE FUTURE     MESSAGES FROM:

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BBBEE GROUP STRUCTURE     BBBEE PARTNERSHIPS     KEY DEFINITIONS     BBBEE GUIDELINES:     CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS     CONFERENCE DECLARATION

CODE 700 – CORPORATE SOCIAL INVESTMENT OR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (SED)

The scorecard provides a section which is left to the discretion of sectors or enterprises and which should be “tailored to their circumstances”.

Guidelines which are recommended for this section include:

• infrastructural support of enterprises in the same area or community; and
• investment and support of enterprises operating in rural communities and the geographic areas identified in government’s integrated sustainable rural development programme and urban renewal programme.

A decision has been taken by Altron to view this section of the codes within the context of its Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Policy as it is aligned to SED. This will avoid duplication in the policy development.

However, it must be noted that the relationship between CSI and BBBEE is not an easy one since BBBEE requires black people to constitute 75% of the beneficiaries in order to achieve full recognition and on a pro rata sliding scale for reducing percentages of black beneficiaries. The Company is answerable to the entire community (as stakeholders), it cannot advocate a “corporate citizenship” policy that addresses only the needs of the previously disadvantaged section of the South African society. Accordingly, CSI projects need to be selected that reflect all our communities within our broad transformation mandate.

Implementation guidelines

• Socio-economic development is referred to elsewhere in the Altron Group as Corporate Social Investment (CSI).
• All entities within the Group will adhere to the CSI policy drawn up by the CSI committee from time to time.
• All entities within the Altron Group will immediately budget to spend as much of the target (ie 1% of NPAT per annum) as is feasible within their business and own BBBEE strategic environment. This spend will be achieved in a variety of ways in accordance with the provisions of the CoGP.
• Each entity will measure all its CSI/SED contributions in line with the company’s financial year.
• Identification and evaluation of potential CSI/SED initiatives undertaken in terms of the CoGP must target projects where at least 75% of the beneficiaries are black people. In the event that less than 75% of the beneficiaries are black people, there will be a pro rata reduction of the spend recognised. If 75% of beneficiaries are black, 100% of spend is counted, if less than 75% are black, then that percentage of spend will be allowed.
• Care should be taken to appreciate that the CoGP count contributions made only within the South African context. All entities will endeavour to allocate CSI/ SED funds to South African beneficiaries.
• Altron entities shall continue to donate funds following various initiatives in accordance with the CSI policy. Effort shall be made to fully brief beneficiary organisations beforehand about the CoGP, and require these beneficiary organisations to account correctly for the donation which, in turn, will enable the Group to obtain verification of the CSI/SED spend in each instance. This could be done by way of a letter of acknowledgement of the donation from the donor organisation, which must state as far as possible the make-up of the beneficiaries, ie that a minimum of 75% of the members of the beneficiary group are black South Africans. Any such statement must be capable of substantiation.
• An annual CSI/SED budget should be drawn up by each entity, based on the forecast NPAT for the next financial year, with an indication of the type of allocations to be made during that year and how the spend will occur.
• A comprehensive record of all CSI/ SED spend must be maintained by each entity during the year, with at least one employee per entity being tasked with the maintenance of all records, which task will be recorded in his/her formal job description.
• All costs claimed for employees’ personal time to be actual costs, and a rating agency such as Empowerdex requests details which include copies of payslips to verify the time and expenditure. Companies can maintain a socio-economic development unit which forms part of corporate CSI/SED spend.
• In order to maximise the impact of its CSI spend, companies must seek partnerships with oher companies within and outside the Altron Group.
• Companies shall seek collaboration with communications and marketing departments to highlight the work that they carry out in various communities.