Flint South Africa Achieves Level 1 B-BBEE Status

After four years of audits and devoted work, Flint South Africa is thrilled to announce it has achieved Level 1 B-BBEE company status. This again affirms Flint International’s commitment to the Rainbow Nation and our global partners.

Flint’s commitment to supporting clients in new geographies has been the driving force behind its expansion in recent years. Local offices bring valuable insights into well-established, as well as vibrant and upcoming markets around the globe, and ensure our clients the same quality of service wherever in the world they work with Flint.

Flint South Africa (Flint SA) was founded in 2015 to support our clients in this dynamic, young, and upcoming Rainbow Nation. It was created to show the commitment of Flint, not only offering its professional and managed services across the country but also showing its long-term commitment to South Africa and its growing economy.

Flint South Africa – A Success Story

South Africa, one of the biggest economies in Africa, is a vibrant market that can be challenging at times. Even before the establishment of Flint SA, Flint had strong ties with the region, which have deepened in recent years. Today our local office works with a few of the most prominent vendors in the ICT world, such as Cisco, and as a local combined team, we deliver large projects to local industries. These projects include new and evolving data centres with new technologies such as ACI.

Flint SA is also instrumental in the country’s transformation project of installing a 5G core network to handle the upcoming 5G wireless networks that will help drive South Africa even further into the future. These 5G networks are also delivering IoT networks across the country. This combined with our growing software development teams focusing on DevNet and DevOps again shows the value of Flint investing in the South African economy.

The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment System

Martin Camp, Managing Director of Flint SA, along with the support of the international Flint executive team, decided to take B-BBEE on board and comply with its requirements to the fullest possible extent.

The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) system, as of 2015, is measured under the amended Code of Good Practice which consists of the following five elements:

  • Ownership
  • Management control
  • Skills Development
  • Enterprise and Supplier Development
  • Socio-economic development

The Codes are developed by the BEE task team set up by the South African Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and comprised of individuals representing various areas: private and public sectors, various industries, research and BEE measurement.

All industry-specific scorecards must align themselves to the generic scorecard. Companies measure their suppliers according to their own sector scorecards. For example, a large banking institution may not measure their ICT service providers according to the financial sector scorecard. The ICT company will present a verification certificate to the financial institution based on the generic scorecard for the ICT sector scorecard. B-BBEE is not only a compliance issue anymore but also a competitive issue.

For more information on the B-BBEE system please visit the website of the Department Trade, Industry and Competition: http://www.thedtic.gov.za/financial-and-non-financial-support/b-bbee/

How Flint South Africa Shows Its Commitment to B-BBEE

To secure additional black ownership, Flint SA created a black employee equity scheme that ensures that its black employees are part owners of our South African company. We are proudly heading towards 51% B-BBEE ownership, which would ensure the maximum level of points in the B-BBEE ownership pillar. As part-owners, our black employees also hold an essential place in the management and strategic direction of Flint SA.

As a local company, Flint SA is also very devoted to skills development and has a strong history of taking young engineers and developing them into strong IT career-driven professionals. A great example is one of our teams of young engineers that have been training in Cisco networking technologies and have now become fully employed professionals within South Africa. We are especially proud that young black females were also part of this program. They are now four years into their cyber security careers and are in constant demand as highly skilled cyber SOC engineers.

Supporting Local Start-Ups and Education to Accelerate Sustainable Development

In the current South African economy, more so than most other nations, start-ups are a critical part of the “new” South African economy. Flint SA has not only financially supported but also mentored numerous start-ups within the ICT sector. This means getting involved with their strategic plans, go-to-market initiatives, resource planning, and cash flows. Flint SA also made a strategic decision to use these start-ups as part of Flint SA’s own organic growth within South Africa. It has been a very successful partnership with these new entrepreneurs and shows that time invested in enterprise and supplier development has a big effect on the South African economy.

Supporting the socio-economic development of the Rainbow Nation is a very significant role of any South African company. Flint SA is very proud to support a handful of young scholars with their schooling fees and learning materials required for their schooling. This way, we show our commitment to helping overcome one of the biggest challenges in South Africa – namely, education, which is one of the foundation stones of sustainable socio-economic development.

Flint South Africa Acquires Level 1 BBB-EE Status

The B-BBEE scorecard is rated from level 7 to level 1. Level 7 is the entry into the B-BBEE program, but it doesn’t help your customers and suppliers obtain their maximum points.

Flint SA’s mission to acquire the highest score possible and show its commitment to the sustainable development of the South African economy has been awarded a level 1 B-BBEE status in March 2022. We are immensely proud that we have managed to advance to the highest level in the B-BBEE system after four years and many audits by verified B-BBEE auditors.

“Building a chapter of Flint International in ‘The Rainbow Nation’ has been a challenge in many ways, but the reward of seeing new and emerging young engineers and companies progressing due to the implementation of the BBB-EE system has made all of our hard work pay off,” says Martin Camp, Managing Director Flint South Africa.

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