Company Announcement - Golder Associates Africa has in the short space of a year improved its Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) contributor rating by three levels. It has leapt from level 6 to level 3, with Level 1 being the highest possible rating. The integrated ground engineering and environmental solutions organisation’s MD Dr Ralph Heath, attributes the significant improvement primarily to increased black ownership.  He says, “The recent ownership transaction involving the Golder Empowerment Trust, effectively increased black ownership by another 25 percent. This allowed us to score 23 out of a potential 25 points for ownership on our Construction Generic Enterprises Scorecard”. 

The company has also changed its board profile, which now includes Heath and three new directors, Dr Wendy Ngoma, Charles Naidoo (Lead: Engineering Services) and Spencer Eckstein (Lead: Legal and Risk/GAIMS). Dr Ngoma who is the former Deputy Director General of the Department of Art, Science and Technology and Lawrence Baloyi, who is the head of the University of Pretoria’s Innovation Support program serve on the board of the recently formed Empowerment Trust with Collen Monokofala (Senior Hydrogeologist) and Spencer Eckstein. 

The main objective of the Trust is to give effect to Golder’s commitment to implementing its Black Economic Empowerment initiatives. This is achieved by: providing funding for skills development, scholarships and bursaries to learner beneficiaries in fields of study that are relevant to Golder’s business providing financial assistance to employee beneficiaries to acquire shares in Golder providing financial assistance to charitable beneficiaries Level 3 contributors have to attain scores of between 75.00 to 84.99 on their scorecards and receive 110 percent procurement recognition. At its previous level, Golder only received 50 percent of the latter. Heath says, “Of course our commitment to B-BBEE is not just a tick-the-box action. It reflects our values, which embrace integrity, excellence, teamwork, caring and ownership.”