The 2026 draft B-BBEE amendments
What actually happened
On 29 January 2026, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition gazetted draft amendments to the Generic Codes of Good Practice (Government Gazette 54032). The amendments touch the enterprise and supplier development (ESD) element specifically. Public comment closed on 30 March 2026.
That's the important part to hold onto: these are draft amendments, not law. Nothing on your scorecard has changed yet. But the direction is clear enough that it's worth understanding now, before it does.
The headline change: a Transformation Fund
The biggest proposal is a new option sitting alongside the existing ESD framework, not replacing it outright — at least not yet.
Today, your ESD score comes from two separate contributions: enterprise development, with a target of 1% of net profit after tax, and supplier development, with a target of 2% of NPAT — worth 5 and 10 weighting points respectively.
The draft amendments introduce a third route: contribute 3% of NPAT to a Transformation Fund, described in the gazette as an aggregated mechanism to accelerate economic transformation and support Black enterprises, particularly exempted micro enterprises and qualifying small enterprises. Pooled resources, not fragmented individual programmes.
The incentive to choose this route is built into the points. A 3% NPAT contribution to enterprise and supplier development under the current rules earns 15 points. The same 3% contributed to the Transformation Fund is proposed to earn 20. Measured entities would choose between the two paths, not be forced onto the new one.
The scorecard itself gets bigger
Alongside the Transformation Fund proposal, the total points available on the ESD element rise from 40 to 62. The catch: the maximum an entity can actually earn, including bonus points, is capped at 47. More ways to score, not simply more points for the same effort.
Why this matters even before it's final
Two reasons to pay attention now rather than waiting for the final gazette.
First, verification agencies will need updated methodology to assess Transformation Fund contributions, and the documentation trail looks different from existing ESD spend records. If the amendment passes close to its current form, corporates that already have clean, live records of their existing ESD programme will have an easier time deciding whether to switch, and proving whatever they choose.
Second, the amendments sit inside a wider procurement shift. The Public Procurement Act, 28 of 2024, was signed in 2024 but not yet proclaimed — the 2022 Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act regulations still govern today's tenders. Draft General Public Procurement Regulations published in April 2026 propose tiered set-asides and mandatory minimum B-BBEE levels across public bidding, with comment extended to 15 June 2026. B-BBEE compliance isn't losing relevance in procurement. If anything, it's being written in more explicitly.
What to do about it now
Nothing needs to change on your scorecard today. What's worth doing:
- Keep your existing ESD records live and audit-ready regardless of which route ultimately wins — a clean, current record is useful under either the existing framework or a Transformation Fund model.
- Don't restructure your programme around a draft that hasn't passed.
- Revisit this page once the amendments are finalised — we'll update it, not archive it.
Sources
- Draft Amendments to the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice, TESD — tesd.org.za/2026/02/02/draft-bbbee-codes-of-good-practice-2026
- Proposed revisions to the ESD Scorecard, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr — cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com (Black economic empowerment alert, 4 February 2026)
- Draft Gazette 54032 introduces sweeping changes to B-BBEE codes, Bizcommunity — bizcommunity.com/article/draft-gazette-54032-introduces-sweeping-changes-to-b-bbee-codes-517070a
- The R100bn Transformation Fund and How It Changes BEE, Accounting Weekly — accountingweekly.com/trending-news/the-r100bn-transformation-fund-and-how-it-changes-bee
- Milestone regulatory development — Draft Public Procurement Regulations published, Lexology — lexology.com