BEE

• majority black ownership (53,2% the shares)
• substantial black management control
• female black empowerment is 43.4 % of the BEE equity portion

Since the 1990s, the company has had strong black economic empowerment credentials, in that 20% (twenty percent) of the shares in the company were at that time held by a Black woman and a significant number of Black people were involved in the management and operation of the business.

The company shareholders wished to facilitate further black economic empowerment in respect of the business, by the dilution of the shareholding of certain of the existing shareholders of the company who are not Black people, and by introducing a new strategic shareholder which is a Black Company and which the parties believed could add significant value to the business.

The company spent much time over the past three years seeking a suitable partner. The company restricted its search to those companies with a business track record, with a reputation of having made a meaningful contribution to other companies in which they have invested, ideally with a broad base of beneficiaries and finally, an executive team with whom the company believed there was a complimentary work style and vision.

After this extensive screening process the company shareholders selected Hosken Consolidated Investments Limited (“HCI”) as such a strategic shareholder and pursuant to this black empowerment transaction a new company, Isilumko Staffing (Proprietary) Limited was formed. With effect from 1 July 2004, Isilumko Staffing (Pty) Ltd purchased the staffing business carried on by Studentwise P/L as a going concern. This new entity has been reconstituted with the same management, staff complement, infrastructure, expertise and assets and is built on the successful fourteen year track record of Studentwise P/L. The transaction raised the black shareholding in Isilumko Staffing to 50.1%. Subsequently, this year the black shareholding was raised further to 53.2%.

Currently Isilumko Staffing’s staff complement, including temporary workers who have been employed for longer than 3 months, numbers almost a thousand at any given time and the HDI component sits at 90% consistently. Our employment transformation is not reserved for the lower level occupational categories and evidence of this is that three of our eight Directors are women. Furthermore, since 1 September 2001, our company has been led by Nritika Singh, the company’s Managing Director, who joined the old company as branch manager in 1994. Nritika Singh has HDI status.

The Company has upper tier BEE Scorecard credentials.