Transformation

OUR TRANSFORMATION IMPACT

Transformation is a process initiated at the dawn of democracy in 1994 in South Africa to address the inequalities that resulted from the country’s past. As one of the largest black-owned companies in the South African fishing sector, one of the Group’s primary drivers is to continually improve on its transformation targets and, more importantly, to play an active role in empowering marginalised and disadvantaged groups and individuals, particularly its employees. This is evidenced by the fact that Sea Harvest has moved from a Level 4 Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) company in 2005 to a Level 1 company with a more than 90% black ownership at present on the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) generic B-BBEE scorecard.

The five pillars of the scorecard are:

  • Ownership: measures the extent to which black people own and control a company.
  • Management Control: evaluates the influence and decision-making ability that black people have in the day-to-day management of a company.
  • Skills Development: assesses a company’s commitment to investing in training and developing its black employees.
  • Enterprise and Supplier Development: measures a company’s efforts to support and empower black-owned businesses through, inter alia, preferential procurement, as well as supplier and enterprise development programmes.
  • Socio-Economic Development: focuses on a company’s contributions to initiatives that promote marginalized individuals’ ability to participate in the economy.
B-BBEE Verification Certificate

IMPACT ON SOCIETY

We promote transformation by fostering job creation, nurturing skills development, and strategically directing a significant portion of its procurement expenditure to suppliers located in economically disadvantaged and semi-rural areas. This deliberate approach yields far-reaching effects in communities, acting as a key driver for employment growth in these regions.

Sea Harvest invests an average of R50-million annually on an extensive training and skills development programme to ensure that its employees are fit-for-the-future, and that its business is sustainable over the long term. These programmes are offered at various levels and include executive and management development programmes, maritime training and cadetships in its Trawling division, emergency response and other health and safety training, vocational skills and apprenticeship training, peer educator training, etc.

Meanwhile, as a result of its procurement policies, the Group spends over R1.5 billion on procuring goods and services from majority black-owned businesses annually, while in excess of R500 million is spent procuring goods and services from SMMEs, mainly in the rural communities in which we operate during the same year. Today, there are many examples of small businesses that have experienced dramatic growth because of the continued work that they do with Sea Harvest.

We believe that by supporting majority black-owned businesses, supplier development, enterprise development, employment equity and skills development of historically disadvantaged employees, we can ensure the long-term growth and development of the Group.

IMPACT IN OUR COMMUNITIES

Sea Harvest, through its not-for-profit company and registered public benefit organisation, the Sea Harvest Foundation NPC, is committed to sharing its wealth with the communities in which it operates. The Group believes that the quality of its stakeholder relationships can be attributed to a willingness to engage openly and honestly, as well as understand and respond to stakeholders’ expectations.

Since its inception, the Foundation has supported socio-economic development activities that assist beneficiaries to secure sustainable livelihoods, providing them with opportunities to meaningfully participate in the local and mainstream economy, and eliminate social ills. Over the past 10-years, we have spread our focus to early childhood development; healthcare; education; as well as youth and community development.

EDUCATION & YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Unemployment is a growing problem in most of the local communities within which Sea Harvest operates. The Foundation, therefore, places high emphasis on empowering youth to become employable and economically active members in society by supporting schools, youth development organisations and sports clubs in these communities.

  • Bursary Programme

    Sea Harvest supports students annually with funding towards their tertiary studies. In most cases, the support continues until the student completes his/her studies. The bursary programme is structured in such a way that it feed into the Group’s Graduate
    Programme, offering bursars the opportunity to gain valuable experience in their field of study and become more marketable to secure permanent employment. In addition, it addresses the issue of scarce skills within the Group, including maritime skills, such as marine navigation, marine engineering and marine science, of which there is a global shortage.

  • School Sports

    To ensure that the development of youth takes place holistically, Sea Harvest has a adopted a rotational approach to funding school
    sports activities at local schools. At least 12 schools benefit from this approach. Most of the funding is used to purchase sports
    equipment or to assist with the installation of a gymnasium.

  • Trash 2 Treasure School Recycling Programme

Eleven public schools have participated in a school recycling programme since its inception. The programme focuses on raising awareness about the need to care about the environment, training, and the provision of resources to promote recycling at schools. A local service provider collects recyclables collected by a school that receives a rebate, which in turn is used to cover some of its operational expenditure. Through the programme, more than 3,100 kilogrammes of waste, equating to approximately 400 wheelie bins, have been diverted from landfill. It has also started conversations about the impact recycling has on reducing carbon emissions.

IMPACT IN THE FISHING INDUSTRY

Facilitating the transformation of the fishing industry has been an imperative for Sea Harvest since the advent of democracy in South Africa. Through the years, Sea Harvest has made significant strides in its transformation ambitions by assisting previously disadvantaged participants in the fishing industry.

As Sea Harvest has developed into a leading black-owned and managed vertically integrated fishing company, its internal vision has been to ensure that it recognises its role in, and is committed to, assisting and developing smaller fishing businesses and promoting transformation within the fishing industry, specifically within the smaller business communities in the rural areas it operates.

In 2018, to fast-track transformation within the broader fishing industry, Sea Harvest led a black consortium in the purchase of the majority white-owned Viking Fishing Group, contributing to the establishment and furtherance of sizeable operational black industrialists and new black entrants into the fishing industry. The acquisition has promoted inclusive economic growth and participation through access, diversity, empowerment and transformation in the fishing industry and the greater South African economy.