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or not such beneficiary would also have to be a supplier to your
company in order to qualify as a Supplier Development beneficiary, is
not explicitly addressed in the Amended Codes. BEE

The Amended Codes makes reference to procurement from supplier
development beneficiaries, and also encourages the alignment of
Enterprise Development and Supplier Development initiatives with
supply chain requirements. This presupposes that both Supplier
Development as well as Enterprise Development beneficiaries may be
suppliers of the Measured Entity, however there is no requirement set
that such beneficiary has to be a supplier of the Measured Entity.

The Amended B-BBEE Verification Manual has been gazetted in draft
format, and although not yet in force, prescribes the mandatory
guidelines which are required to be followed by any person issuing a
BEE certificate.
The draft Verification Manual specifically states that the distinction
between Supplier Development and Enterprise Development is whether
or not the beneficiary is an Empowering Supplier, and not whether it is
a supplier to the Measured Entity. A Supplier Development beneficiary
may be an Enterprise Development beneficiary, but an Enterprise
Development beneficiary may not be a Supplier Development
beneficiary, unless it also has Empowering Supplier Status.
It should also be noted that in terms of the draft Verification Manual,
verification professionals are not required to obtain any evidence
as to whether a Supplier Development beneficiary is also a supplier
of the Measured Entity, therefore affirming the fact that this is not a
requirement.

In a further recent development the recognition of Empowering
Supplier Status has been extended until further notice, which means
that all entities with valid BEE certificates or affidavits issued in terms
of the Amended Codes enjoy automatic Empowering Supplier Status.
In essence there is then currently no distinction between Supplier
Development and Enterprise Development. Any qualifying contribution
to a beneficiary who meets the general requirements may therefore be
claimed under either of the two sub-elements on the scorecard.

With regards to the type of contributions made, the Amended Codes
provides a non-exhaustive list of Supplier Development and Enterprise
Development contributions, which is essentially similar to that of the
previous Codes. There is also no distinction drawn between initiatives
for Supplier Development or for Enterprise Development, and a specific
type of contribution can be recognised for either of the two sub-
elements. However, companies should guard against splitting a single
previous Enterprise Development contribution into the now separate

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