Chinese South Africans Can Participate in BEE Transactions

22 June 2008 last updated: 24 Jun 2008

Sasol Inzalo Update: Chinese South Africans access Inzalo and South Africans continue to respond

Sasol notes the decision, by the High Court of South Africa (Transvaal Provincial Division), declaring that South African Chinese people fall within the ambit of the definition of "black people" in section 1 of the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 and within the ambit of the definition of "black people" in section 1 of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003.

Following the ruling, Sasol took the appropriate steps to ensure that South African Chinese people, who now qualify for participation, were immediately able participate in the Sasol Inzalo BEE transaction.

Nolitha Fakude, an executive director at Sasol and champion of the Sasol Inzalo Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment transaction, said the Sasol Inzalo focus has always been on broad-based access.

"The Sasol Inzalo transaction was always intended to reach as wide an audience of eligible South Africans as possible. The decision this week, by the High Court, ensures we have been able to extend our invitation to even more eligible South Africans," she said.

With just two weeks left to apply for the Sasol Inzalo BEE invitation, thousands of eligible South Africans have been flocking to post offices across the country, to pick up their copies of the Inzalo prospectus with application forms and to open their unique Sasol Inzalo Postbank accounts. The invitation closes on 5 July 2008.

Sasol, through the service provider INCE, produced two million prospectuses, for this transaction. The prospectus contains all the information about the transaction as well as the application forms. This is believed to be the largest single print run to date in South Africa. More than 900 tonnes of paper was used in the production.

The actual printing took 1300 hours and 12 printing presses were used in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. The prospectuses were then distributed to post offices countrywide and are also available at Sasol and selected Exel service stations. The prospectuses are easily identifiable and stacked in branded Sasol Inzalo containers at all collection points mentioned above.

To date, Sasol has seen the greatest interest in Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape.

The Sasol Inzalo website recorded more than 13 000 visitors in the first week that the offer was opened and the online version of the prospectus was downloaded almost 9000 times in that week. Another popular service available on the website is the "post office locator" that will help identify the post office closest to you where you can pick up your Sasol Inzalo prospectus and application forms. The "locator" function was used more than 3000 times – also in the first week of the invitation.

The Sasol Inzalo call center (0800 000 222) is open from 08h00 until 16h00 Monday to Friday. Call center agents are able to assist callers in Zulu, Xhosa, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English. The call center has handled over 19 000 calls since its inception.