Engineering News

Chevron South Africa has attained Level 4 (100% recognition level) against the revised Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Codes of Good Practice. 
 
The amended codes were restructured to provide greater economic opportunities to previously economically marginalised individuals and companies. The new structure places a greater weighting on the priority elements of Ownership, Preferential Procurement including Enterprise and Supplier Development as well as Skills Development. 
 
In commenting on the Chevron South Africa result, executive chairman Shashi Rabbipal said that Chevron South Africa remained committed to its transformation journey and that its transformation objectives have been integrated into the overall business strategy for several years.
 
“Our company's foundation is built on our values, which ensures that we conduct our business in a socially responsible and ethical manner, respecting the laws and benefitting the communities where we work. It was therefore imperative that Chevron respond to the evolving business environment and government legislation.  Given this key business imperative, it ensured that transformation is fully embedded into our business.” 
 
He added that a key driver of the transformation process was the need to retain and enhance profitability.
 
“Understandably, making true progress on transformation requires innovation and re-engineering certain enterprise elements. For example, the company has benefitted from the unbundling of its crude oil acquisition processes. This has allowed us to adjust the local content of the cost of our sales, the bulk of which is crude oil, and channel this through local black suppliers. Collaboration with Chevron globally was essential, and they were hugely supportive of this objective. Today, approximately 40% of our trading activities are with local oil traders, which is an outstanding achievement for a company operating in this sector.
 
“Additionally, we have focused on overall Enterprise and Supplier Development by providing interest free loans to designated B-BBEE beneficiaries. This is part of a long journey with our strategic partners so that we can create a sustainable relationship with them.”
 
Chevron South Africa also scored highly in the management control and employment equity rating areas, with81% of its South African workforce being black South African., Nine of the ten board directors are black South Africans, with three of them being black South African women. 
 
Chevron South Africa has further recruited 31 black unemployed learners living with disabilities who are currently undergoing skills development programs that will assist in their absorption into the Industry.  This also support youth and gender development as the unemployed learners have an average age of 28 years old, with 65% being women.