Volume: Volume 18 - 2014

Article type: Refereed article

Author/s: Kloppers, Henk

Black economic empowerment (BEE) is one of the primary instruments in the government's attempt to redress the legacy of apartheid and is ultimately aimed at empowering Black South Africans to fully participate in all spheres of society in order to address economic inequalities. The BEE framework attempts on a progressive basis, to address the economic needs of a section of society that has been adversely affected by past government policies.  The BEE framework includes the BEE Generic Scorecard which is used to evaluate the extent to which businesses have complied with the elements included in the Scorecard.  The Scorecard includes the elements of skills development, preferred procurement; enterprise development; and socio-economic development.  This article submits that these elements can directly be linked to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and given South Africa's history might be viewed as an adapted version of CSR.  Given the lack of explicit steps taken by government to support CSR, the article identifies the mentioned elements of the Generic Scorecard as possible implicit measures aimed at furthering the CSR agenda.  The article identifies a number of key definitions and discusses, within the context of CSR, the four elements of the scorecard.  The article concludes with recommendations on how to further ensure that CSR becomes more embedded in the corporate culture.

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