Consulting engineer Royal HaskoningDHV has achieved Level 2 black economic-empowerment (BEE) status, the company announced on Tuesday.
Royal HaskoningDHV noted that it was one of the first independent consulting engineering companies in Southern Africa and later, also one of the first to be established as an empowerment company.
“Royal HaskoningDHV’s strategic intent is to benefit all its stakeholders, believing that transformation initiatives are – as an underlying precept – about ‘doing good business’ and recognising BEE as a business imperative that creates employment opportunities for the ultimate benefit of the country,” the company commented.
The firm’s long-established reputation as a learning institution, stretched back to its origins in 1922. More recently, in 2007, Royal HaskoningDHV launched its Saturday School initiative, which currently provided coaching for scholars from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve a matric exemption and go on to pursue a technical career.
Saturday School, which Royal HaskoningDHV pointed out operated from six of its branch offices, in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, had provided support for more than 800 learners since its inception.