B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit: how a buyer checks a supplier's B-BBEE evidence

A B-BBEE certificate, in full a B-BBEE verification certificate, is the document a verification professional or agency issues after a B-BBEE verification: it shows the enterprise's overall B-BBEE status and its score for each scorecard element. That is how Practice Guide 01 of 2022 defines it; the guide is issued by the B-BBEE regulator, the body set up under section 13B of the B-BBEE Act.^[4][1]

Only a verification professional or agency accredited by SANAS, the South African National Accreditation System, may carry out that verification, or one authorised by a B-BBEE Verification Professional Regulator (Practice Guide 01 of 2022, paragraph 22). That is a separate body from the B-BBEE regulator: under the Act's definition, a body appointed by the Minister to accredit rating agencies or authorise B-BBEE verification professionals.^[4][1]

Outside the exceptions the guide names, an EME goes through verification only when it wants a higher recognition level, on the QSE scorecard (paragraphs 12 to 15).^[4]

A sworn affidavit and a certificate from the CIPC, the companies registry, are the other two forms of B-BBEE evidence the guide deals with. The B-BBEE regulator treats all three as evidence of an enterprise's compliance over a particular period (paragraph 7).^[4]

Each level is a band of points on the Generic or QSE Scorecard, and carries a procurement recognition level: the percentage at which a buyer measured under the Codes counts its spend with that supplier. These are the bands in Statement 000 of the Codes of Good Practice as replaced in May 2019 (paragraph 9.2.1).^[2]

Sources:^[2]

It depends on the supplier's annual total revenue, its black ownership and any sector code, since an enterprise in a sector with its own code "may only be measured" under that code (section 10(3) of the Act). The generic rows follow Statement 000 (May 2019), the construction row the Amended Construction Sector Code (December 2017).^[1][2][3][4]

Sources:^{[2][4][3][6][7]}

Confirm it with the agency named on it. Practice Guide 01 of 2022 says the recipient can ask the verification professional or agency said to have issued the certificate to confirm that it did, and advises it to use the SANAS website to check the agency's accreditation status, accreditation period and scope. An agency whose accreditation has expired, been withdrawn or been suspended cannot issue a B-BBEE certificate (paragraph 27).^[4]

The B-BBEE regulator also publishes, by financial year, lists of certificates it considers invalid: search the current one for the supplier's name. On the list for April 2026 to March 2027, as read in November 2026, every entry gives the same reason: the certificate was fraudulently issued and the verifier indicated that it did not issue it.^[5]

A buyer may ask the supplier for further documents to test what the certificate records, and should say whether it wants the original, a copy or a certified copy (paragraphs 28 and 29).^[4]

Of the items paragraph 26 says a certificate shall identify, check these first:^[4]

• the supplier's name and location as in its CIPC records, and its registration and VAT numbers;^[4]
• the period of validity, from issue date to expiry date (the guide's example runs from 7 October 2021 to 6 October 2022);^[4]
• a unique identification number, with a revision number if it was reissued;^[4]
• the code (the amended Codes or a sector code) and the scorecard (Generic or QSE) used;^[4]
• the agency's name or logo and the SANAS accreditation symbol;^[4]
• the status level, the procurement recognition level and the score per element.^[4]

An EME, and a QSE at least 51% black owned, need only a yearly sworn affidavit confirming annual total revenue and level of black ownership; an EME may use a CIPC certificate instead (Statement 000, paragraphs 4.6 and 5.3.3).^[2]

Read it against Practice Guide 01 of 2022. The affidavit must be on the dtic's template, which may carry the supplier's letterhead (paragraph 11), and is "valid for a period of 12 months from the date signed by commissioner", in the template's words: one signed before a commissioner of oaths on 12 August 2022 expires on 11 August 2023 (paragraph 17(k)).^[4][6][7]

A CIPC certificate has the same status as an affidavit and is open only to companies and close corporations with turnover below R10 million. It must show, among other items, issue and expiry dates twelve months apart, a certificate number, barcodes, the dtic and CIPC logos and a CIPC watermark (paragraphs 18, 20 and 21).^[4]

For an affidavit, paragraph 17 of the guide lists what makes it valid. Check that:^[4]

• the deponent's full name as in their identity document and their identity number are filled in, with their capacity as director, owner or member;^[4]
• the enterprise's name and business address match its CIPC registration documents;^[4]
• black, black female and black designated group ownership are given as percentages, each designated sub-category filled in or marked nil;^[4]
• the annual total revenue, its basis (audited financial statements, financial statements or management accounts) and the most recent financial year end are stated;^[4]
• one B-BBEE status level is selected, and it matches the black ownership;^[4]
• the deponent and the commissioner of oaths signed on the same date, and the commissioner of oaths is not an employee of the enterprise.^[4]

A buyer measured under the Codes counts its spend with each supplier at that supplier's recognition level: Statement 400 calculates B-BBEE procurement spend by multiplying the measured spend with a supplier "by the supplier's B-BBEE Recognition Level" (paragraph 7.3).^[2]

On that calculation alone, R1 million spent with a Level One supplier counts as R1.35 million, with a Level Four supplier as R1 million and with a Non-Compliant supplier as nothing.^[2]

Spend placed on the strength of an invalid document does not count: the B-BBEE regulator states that preferential procurement spend directed to a supplier "on the basis of an invalid B-BBEE document cannot be recognised during a B-BBEE measurement process" (Practice Guide 01 of 2022, paragraph 8).^[4]

Every organ of state and public entity must apply the relevant code of good practice in "developing and implementing a preferential procurement policy" (section 10(1)(b) of the Act), and may cancel a contract awarded "on account of false information knowingly furnished" about an enterprise's B-BBEE status (section 13A).^[1]

Knowingly misrepresenting an enterprise's B-BBEE status, giving false information to a B-BBEE verification professional to secure a status, or to an organ of state, or engaging in a fronting practice is an offence (section 13O(1) of the Act).^[1]

The penalty is a fine or up to 10 years' imprisonment, or both, or for an enterprise that is not a natural person a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover (section 13O(3)(a)), and a convicted person may not do business with any organ of state or public entity for 10 years (section 13P(1)).^[1]

A procurement officer or other official of an organ of state or public entity who becomes aware of such an offence, or an attempt at one, and does not report it to an appropriate law enforcement agency also commits an offence (section 13O(2)).^[1]

The B-BBEE regulator states that trading with an invalid or fraudulent certificate or affidavit may be an offence under section 13O(1)(a), which it may investigate under section 13J (Practice Guide 01 of 2022, paragraph 30).^[4]