By Zamandulo Malonde, 05 August 2020
Isuzu Motors South Africa moves to a level one B-BBEE score with the YES B-BBEE Benefit! Read here to find out how you gain on your scorecard
Isuzu Motors South Africa has attained a level one score in a recent broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) audit. The company’s CEO and managing director, Billy Tom, said this was a remarkable achievement considering that Isuzu Motors SA was launched only in January 2018. “We have embraced transformation as a business imperative and our new scorecard reflects the good business practices which we have implemented in support of this. We regard transformation, as critical to ensuring the sustainability of our business, while it reflects our commitment to being part of the transformation of our country,” Tom said. He said it was important that transformation was adopted by businesses as a pragmatic growth strategy geared towards realising the country’s full potential by bringing more citizens into the economic mainstream. “Furthermore, to help drive this change south Africans should support businesses which are actively contributing towards the transformation and growth of our local economy,” he said. Tom said though he was pleased with the company ‘s performance to date, its transformation journey was only just starting. “The focus going forward will be to continue to implement initiatives which will further transform our business and also that of our entire value chain. We must all operate in line with the demographics of SA and be tuned into the needs of our diverse customer base,” he said.
Isuzu’s senior vice-president for human capital and corporate services, Elvis Hermans, said this achievement was the result of a number of critical actions and decisions taken over the past year to ensure Isuzu’s alignment to the country’s transformation and economic progression goals. Isuzu recently became a participant in the Automotive Industry Transformation Fund, which was established by the department of trade, industry, and competition to support the transformation of the automotive industry value chain. “We will be working closely with the [fund] to further support supplier and dealer transformation initiatives, as well as the deepening of the localisation of components, which is a pillar of the Automotive Industry Master Plan,” Hermans said. The company supported the Youth Employment Service (YES) Programme this year with the placement of 72 candidates, thus offering young people paid work experience while creating a pipeline of future talent. Tom said Isuzu’s Community development programmes were similarly aimed at the development of young people, especially in mathematics, science and engineering, and the preservation of the country’s natural resources and the environment, while providing disaster relief to communities in crisis. He said it was important that transformation was also embraced beyond the B-BBEE scorecard by adopting an approach of greater flexibility and openness in responding to the rapid changes ushered in by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Given the seismic shift which is happening around the globe and within our industry, we need to rethink and reshape how we do business going forward,” he said.