| Wed 1 Apr 2009, 8:00 | | PPC - Pretoria Portland Cement Company - PPC excels on empowerment rating |
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PPC
PPC
PPC - Pretoria Portland Cement Company - PPC excels on empowerment rating
PRETORIA PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY LIMITED
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Company registration number: 1892/000667/06)
JSE Code: PPC
ISIN: ZAE000125886
("PPC" or "the company")
PPC Excels on Empowerment Rating
PPC is delighted to announce its Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
(BBBEE) rating as audited by Empowerlogic (Pty) Ltd, a registered verification
agency. The only cement manufacturer listed on the JSE since 1910 has now
achieved a level 4 rating according to the Department of Trade and Industry`s
(DTI) scorecard following the results of its interim BBBEE audit in March 2009.
This is the highest BBBEE status to date in the cement manufacturing industry.
Last year the company announced at the launch of its 15% BBBEE transaction,
which positively impacts over 3 million people, that it planned to reach a
level 4 rating by 2010. This achievement comes well ahead of schedule.
The Empowerlogic BBBEE rating uses the black ownership flow through principle
and indicates a level of black ownership rising to over 25% at the equity
level which included 9% black women ownership. Other significant contributors to
this rating were the company`s investment in skills development within the
sector, preferential procurement and meeting employment equity objectives at
all levels in the organisation.
John Gomersall, CEO of PPC commented; "Many people held the view that
transformation was all about the "100m dash to win the BBBEE equity race".
We at PPC always believed that REAL transformation is designed to work "bottom
up" by empowering our PPC people, uplifting communities, overcoming the skills
barrier and investing in the development of black businesses. This approach has
created meaningful transformation that starts at grassroots level as opposed to
those which have focused initially on black equity transactions."
It is through PPC`s philosophy of `Kambuku`, a value-based management
philosophy adopted in 1998 which emphasises its people as integral to the
success of everything it does, and through the organisations ongoing
commitment to uplifting the communities in which it operates that it has been
possible to achieve this rating. PPC`s long standing commitment to developing
black businesses goes back almost three decades when it pioneered the
empowerment of black industry-related entrepreneurs in the 1980`s.
In addition to the appointment of Chairman Mr Bheki Sibiya at the end of
last year, PPC recently announced the appointment of a further two black
non-executive directors to the Board last month. This brings the number of
black non-executive directors to six out of a total of eight, of which two
are black women non-executive directors.
Gomersall added; "PPC has always maintained that transformation goes
beyond a scorecard and into the domain of making a real difference to the
lives of all our stakeholders. We are proud of this industry leading
achievement because of our broad based view to sustainable empowerment.
This is why we have made transformation part of the DNA of our business for
almost 2 decades"
Sandton
01 April 2009
Sponsor
Merrill Lynch South Africa (Pty) Limited
For further enquiries contact:
PPC +27 11 386 9000
John Gomersall
Kevin Odendaal
College Hill +27 11 447 3030
Jacques de Bie +27 82 691 5384
Nandile Ngubentombi +27 82 825 8004
Date: 01/04/2009 08:00:00 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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