ENHANCED LIVELIHOODS
Enhanced livelihoods is a cross-cutting business agenda to drive economic transformation in South Africa, responding directly to the national Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act. The Act which requires companies to drive economic transformation through business ownership, management control, skills development, employment equity, enterprise and supplier development (ESD) and socio-economic development (SED).
While essentially a compliance driver, the B-BBEE Act has far-reaching strategic implications for the business. Performing well on the B-BBEE scorecard and maintaining a leading contributor level secures our social licence to operate, enables us to capture growth opportunities in diversity and inclusion, supports the management of national socio-economic risks, and contributes to creating conditions conducive to a prosperous economy and society.
We are improving the livelihoods of thousands of people by creating opportunities for inclusive economic participation across our value chain. We have set 2030 targets relating to employment equity, enterprise and supplier development (ESD), preferential procurement, and socio-economic development (SED). These targets cover gender representation in the workforce and racial diversity in management, supplier development funding, support for black-owned enterprises and job creation, procurement from black-owned suppliers, and investment in community enterprises.
Our transformation strategy is led and developed under the chief legal and corporate affairs officer with implementation through a B-BBEE working group comprising business unit representatives responsible for transformation-related initiatives and programmes. The working group reports to an executive-level cross-functional steering committee comprising the chief legal and corporate affairs officer and chief people officer. The transformation strategy dovetails functional strategies across the organisation, with initiatives to address our enhanced livelihoods targets championed across functions. We retained our Level 2 B-BBEE contributor status in 2025, maintaining our position as an industry transformation leader. Our latest B-BBEE scorecard is presented in the sustainability databook (see here).
Employment equity: Employment equity is key to transforming our talent. Our employment equity targets – covering gender representation in the workforce and racial diversity of management – are championed through HR and our people strategy, alongside other initiatives focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (see here).
Enterprise and supplier development (ESD): ESD and preferential procurement are key to transforming our supply chain. Our targets – covering supplier development funding, support for black-owned enterprises, job creation, procurement from black-owned suppliers – are championed through Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Procurement and our sustainable agricultural sourcing framework (see here).
Socio-economic development (SED): We support SED through our corporate social investment (CSI) activities managed by Corporate Affairs and Sustainability and aligned with our SED strategy. We partner with local non-profit organisations to support vulnerable households near our operations, building sustainable and food-secure communities. Our initiatives focus on food security and nutrition across all life stages, together with community skills and enterprise development that equip local black-owned and black women-owned community enterprises with business management skills and business development support. Our community engagement toolkit and site-level steering committees manage stakeholder relationships, address grievances, and identify opportunities to advance socio-economic development in neighbouring communities through employment, procurement, skills development, and enterprise support. These site-level insights inform our group-level approach. Further information on our SED performance is reported in the sustainability databook (see here).
