Local converged network provider, KSS Technologies, has announced that it has consolidated its shares and increased its BEE shareholding to more than 60 percent. The transaction included the purchase of shares from a number of smaller shareholders and the sale of a further 25 percent equity stake to an existing shareholder and KSS director Ntsundeni Madzunya for an undisclosed amount.

KSS Technologies managing director André Maree says this transaction endorses KSS’s commitment to true Black Economic Empowerment and builds on its original commitment to true broad-based BEE principles. “We believe that the spirit of true BEE encompasses a variety of elements, not only equity. Social upliftment and nation building; skills development and knowledge transfer; job creation and sustained learnership programmes are all key components of BEE strategy.”

Maree says having a true BEE strategy is the right thing to do. “To ensure that our BEE strategy works, all our BEE shareholders are physically involved in the company, they are operational and have a vested interest.”

In addition, KSS has developed and implemented its own skills development program - the Ithuteng Initiative – in conjunction with a leading human resource development organisation. This program aims to employ Previously Disadvantaged Individual (PDI) sales executives that effectively represent the products, solutions and services of KSS and its partners in the market; increase the sales capacity and exposure of KSS and its partners; develop unskilled PDI’s into a mutually beneficial career path.

Through this programme, candidates are trained and developed to be proficient in organisational, business and technical skills. The candidates are sourced and selected according to scientific methods - based on predictive modeling of a successful sales person. They are not selected according to experience or skills but rather on their innate potential and attitude.