Donations could cost BEE points: report

Businesses could lost black economic empowerment points for making donations to charities which do not have 100 percent black beneficiaries.

This was according to amendments to the BEE Codes of Good Practice, on the trade and industry department's website, and available for public comment until December 2, The Star reported.

"All stakeholders who have concerns and objections are requested to make use of the 60-day period to make their submission," the department said.

Bridget Brun, a Durban BEE agency head, told the newspaper: "This amendment will have a huge effect. It means that if the charity benefits any Indian, white, coloured or even a Mozambican or Zimbabwean child, companies will not be able to claim points on their BEE scorecard. We are going to have segregated facilities."

Childline head Joan van Niekerk said BEE laws were becoming ridiculous.

"We don't know the race of the child who phones us. It's inappropriate to ask, 'Are you black, and how black are you?' This is a different kind of apartheid."