Property Charter Council partners with Property Point

MAIN IMAGE: Portia Tau-Sekati, CEO of the PSCC, signs the MOU with Shawn Theunissen, Property Point’s founder.

The Property Sector Charter Council (PSCC) has formed a partnership with award winning business accelerator Property Point (PP) to develop and fast-track the participation of black entrepreneurs in the property sector.

The partnership will enable the PSCC and Property Point to drive transformation in the sector through the incubation and acceleration of black property [focus on women and youth] businesses, with the focus on empowering women and young professionals. This is seen as a critical step to help bring small, micro and medium (SMME) businesses into the value chain.

The property sector has taken a serious knock due to the Covid-19 pandemic and requires a step-change and a brave set of strategies to ensure business sustainability and growth.

Introducing the partners

The Property Sector Charter Council provides the framework and establishes the principles upon which B-BBEE will be implemented in the sector. With monitoring the PSCC uses its executive authority to provide guidance on specific property sector BBBEE matters and also identifies and develops solutions to enable transformation of the property sector. The PSCC represents 25 industry organisations and associations that are members and are signatories to the Property Sector Code.

Established in 2008 as Growthpoint Properties’ Enterprise & Supplier Development initiative, Property Point have since partnered with some of the largest property organisations in the country. The current partners are Attacq, Fortress REIT, Pareto Holdings, Public Investment Corporation and SEDA. Over the past 12 years Property Point has facilitated market opportunities worth more than R1.6bn for the 270 SMMEs that have taken part in its enterprise and supplier development programme. The programme has helped to create more than 4784 jobs.

Who can benefit?

Any SMME in the property sector providing a service to the property value chain can be a beneficiary of the programme. In the initial phase of the partnership, 50 black property businesses will be placed in the two-year programme, with the prospect of further impact through the creation of jobs, and downstream services.

In addition to the 50 businesses to be identified for the first phase, the partnership also provides for PSCC member organisations to partner up with Property Point for implementation of their enterprise and supplier development needs.

Power of collaboration

According to the PSCC’s report on transformation presented in 2019, there is still a lot to be done to achieve substantial change in racial and gender composition of ownership, control and management. Portia Tau-Sekati CEO of the PSCC said South Africa needed an ecosystem of support for businesses in the property sector. “We need to go beyond box ticking and compliance to affect purposeful and impact-based transformation. We understand that times are tough in the sector and will remain so for the foreseeable future, however now is the time for resetting our thinking and focus on how we build our economy and stimulate the property sector through supporting entrepreneurs and proving market access – leveraging on the power of collaboration.

Shawn Theunissen, Property Point’s founder said “This milestone is significant to us as it moves our organisation to the next phase of harnessing the power of collaboration with partners who are equally matched and can drive more inclusive growth and participation in the sector as well as the broader economy. In the recent past, the industry had focused on businesses outside the property value-chain which was a problem in that the large technical aspects and contracts still went to relatively untransformed businesses. As Property Point we believe in the value of doing Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) the correct way, by creating a solid pipeline of transformed businesses across the full spectrum of the value-chain. This is what we consider transformation beyond compliance.”

He adds that it is clear from the 2020 data, that the B-BBEE Commission released just a few months ago, that we are seeing low to stagnating levels of black empowerment across industries. “Together with our new partners, we aim to debunk this trend and apply the tried and tested methodologies which have previously resulted in 270 black businesses becoming sustainable and profitable over the past 12 years. We aim to work together as an industry to create a solution that will lead us to the desired transformation results under ESD.

“As the property sector we must develop solutions that will solve the challenges that face SA on its path to an inclusive economy. Whatever solution we choose, one thing is clear – corporate, industry bodies and entrepreneurs need to see each other as partners in building SA. The industry needs to be part of the solution that brings entrepreneurs into the mainstream of the economy,” Tau-Sekati concludes.

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