Activists, Sasol head for supplier showdown

A battle between petrochemical giant Sasol and an economic transformation lobby group is looming after the latter’s attempt to strong-arm the company into releasing its list of suppliers and contracts was turned down.

The Practical Radical Economic Transformation of SA (Pret SA) – a lobby group which claims to have 1.1 million unemployed youths as its members – failed to get a “satisfactory answer” from Sasol.

This after applying to the company for permission, under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia), to see if black-owned businesses and individuals were its beneficiaries.

Pret SA was formed in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, three years ago, and has since launched branches in Gauteng, Limpopo, the North West and the Free State.

Its president is Themba Sigudla, a multimillionaire and a friend of Deputy President David Mabuza. He is also a benefactor of the DD Mabuza Foundation.

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When Mabuza was the premier of Mpumalanga, he had endorsed and backed Pret SA. Before resigning as premier, Mabuza ensured that the organisation had signed a memorandum of agreement with the provincial government to unlock business and job opportunities for youth in the public and private sectors.

The group has conducted protest action at large corporates, such as Eskom and RCL Foods, to pressurise them to provide jobs and business opportunities for youths. It has also been in talks with SAA in this regard.

Matthew Phillips, lawyer for Pret SA, said he had sent a letter of demand to Sasol and a Paia application, which was rejected.

“We are on the verge of filing court papers to demand the information, and this will probably take place towards the end of the month,” said Phillips.

Sigudla said companies such as Sasol had to be transparent and come out clearly about how they supported unemployed youths or intended to create opportunities for them.

Sasol spokesperson Matebello Motloung confirmed that the company had several engagements with Pret SA, saying it had been transparent about social investment programmes as well as its approach to labour and transformation initiatives and goals.

“We are not in a position to accede to Pret’s demands that we provide them with a list of all our suppliers and contracts, and that we introduce them to these companies,” said Motloung.

“We believe that these demands overreach the ambit of the Paia on the basis of commercial interest and confidentiality,” she added.

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Motloung said Sasol was not aware of the pending litigation and that its doors remained open to engage with Pret SA.

For the 2018 financial year, Motloung said, Sasol increased its spend on youth skills and entrepreneurial development, particularly in its host communities of Secunda and Sasolburg.

“We have also increased our support of black-owned and locally owned businesses.

“In 2018, Sasol spent R12.7bn with black-owned businesses – up from R7.4bn in 2017, while our preferential procurement expenditure in Sasolburg and Secunda has increased from R2.6bn in 2017 to R4.7bn.

“We have also increased our small, medium and micro enterprises loan book from R139m in 2017 to R302m,” she said.

In its inaugural policy conference in June, Pret SA took a number of resolutions, avowing its support for the expropriation of land without compensation, the nationalisation of banks and radical economic transformation.

The group also resolved to ensure that the poor have access to opportunities in the country’s 717 state-owned entities, which collectively administer a budget of about R600bn per annum.

Pret SA has committed itself to forcing private sector companies, through the courts, to disclose their contributions to corporate social investment (CSI) programmes, and to unmasking senior politicians who have become a buffer for transformation in private companies because they have been co-opted as active or silent partners.

Pret SA also wants government, both at provincial and national level, to be a director, assessor and evaluator of CSI funds.

It also wants to see mortgage bonds scrapped for people who are on a salary scale of between R4 000 and R18 000 a month, saying they should instead qualify for housing loans to be serviced in less than six years.