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EC BEE consortium welcomes probe into gambling industry
Posted on: Thursday, 07 October 2004. Article source: The Herald
A call by the national gambling board for a probe into the nature and extent of BEE equity in the sector has been welcomed by the black economic empowerment consortium involved in the industry in the Eastern Cape.
Tobile Boltina, chairman of Zonwabise Investment Holdings, which is a BEE partner to Emfuleni Resorts, operator of the Boardwalk complex in Port Elizabeth, said his group was aware of the development and welcomed the initiative.
He was responding to a statement by a BEE audit committee of the National Gambling Board this week which recommended that provincial gambling boards “have to review all the licences currently in operation” to understand clearly the equity ownership and extent of BEE participation.
The committee also said the industry should seriously consider a voluntary charter that would set out clear BEE criteria and benchmarks as well as arrangements for BEE financing, skills transfer and capacity development.
The recommendations were based on recent findings about BEE involvement in the gambling industry. The probe established that some of them had an indirect interest such as a consortium holding shares in a company which in turn held shares in an operating company.
With a few exceptions, the BEE groups played a subsidiary role in the industry, the committee found.
It established that not all of the BEE equity holders were involved in the management companies established to run the casino operations.
The committee suggested that the board and the provincial licensing authorities should require all licence operators to submit annual BEE reports and to chart the course of improvement in all aspects of BEE participation in the industry.
About funding, the committee suggested that government should establish a national empowerment funding agency to serve “as a vehicle for funding equity for BEE partners”.
It suggested that the audit committee be reconstituted in three years in order to review progress and implementation.
The recommendation was on the basis of a finding that banks were not particularly keen to back BEE deals in the sector.
Boltina said the recommendations were a step in the right direction.
Tobile Boltina, chairman of Zonwabise Investment Holdings, which is a BEE partner to Emfuleni Resorts, operator of the Boardwalk complex in Port Elizabeth, said his group was aware of the development and welcomed the initiative.
He was responding to a statement by a BEE audit committee of the National Gambling Board this week which recommended that provincial gambling boards “have to review all the licences currently in operation” to understand clearly the equity ownership and extent of BEE participation.
The committee also said the industry should seriously consider a voluntary charter that would set out clear BEE criteria and benchmarks as well as arrangements for BEE financing, skills transfer and capacity development.
The recommendations were based on recent findings about BEE involvement in the gambling industry. The probe established that some of them had an indirect interest such as a consortium holding shares in a company which in turn held shares in an operating company.
With a few exceptions, the BEE groups played a subsidiary role in the industry, the committee found.
It established that not all of the BEE equity holders were involved in the management companies established to run the casino operations.
The committee suggested that the board and the provincial licensing authorities should require all licence operators to submit annual BEE reports and to chart the course of improvement in all aspects of BEE participation in the industry.
About funding, the committee suggested that government should establish a national empowerment funding agency to serve “as a vehicle for funding equity for BEE partners”.
It suggested that the audit committee be reconstituted in three years in order to review progress and implementation.
The recommendation was on the basis of a finding that banks were not particularly keen to back BEE deals in the sector.
Boltina said the recommendations were a step in the right direction.
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