The sectoral BEE charter for banking still isn't settled. The big scrap seems to be over ownership targets.
International investors could see South Africa's political risk rise if the demand by Cosatu and the SA Communist Party - that the direct black ownership in the big four banks and insurance firms be raised from 10 percent to 15 percent - is met.

The big four banks are Absa, Standard Bank, First National Bank and Nedbank.

Patrice Rassou, a senior portfolio manager at Sanlam Investment Management, said yesterday that it looked "unlikely" that labour and the banks would come to an agreement on the matter "but hopefully the treasury and Reserve Bank will intervene".

He added: "It is crucial that the goal posts are not moved around as that will increase the perception of political risk in South Africa."

But Jan Mahlangu, the retirement funds representative at Cosatu, told Business Report that the ownership issue was top of the agenda at the union federation's central executive committee meeting, which started yesterday and ends tomorrow.

Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of Cosatu, plans to meet trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa to seek a solution to the differences between the two parties. The meeting will take place sometime this week, while the deadline to gazette a charter for the sector was August 31.
full story from Business Report here
A question here (feeling a little thick right now) - Why is COSATU the other side of this "negotiation"? Is BBBEE an issue between business and labour or business and government? Especially on the ownership front!

I don't know if you share my sense of humour, but this point had me giggling:
But Rassou said it was going to be difficult for the banks to accede to union demands because the current environment was hostile to the banks and they would want to conserve capital at this point of the cycle.

"It is also unlikely that the deals aimed at increasing ownership in the banks would find funding from outside of the banking sector," he said.
But it is a serious game being played here. The stakes are high.
Fears of political risk have long plagued South Africa's empowerment efforts.

Four years ago petrochemical giant Sasol filed its now infamous form 20-F with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In it Sasol said that due to empowerment legislation "we cannot assure you that this participation will take place through transactions occurring at fair market terms. This will not have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition."

Before that, in 2002, resource shares lost R51 billion on the JSE when the draft charter for the mining industry was leaked to the market.