Enterprise and Supplier Development that builds ready businesses - not just scorecard points.
A CA(SA)-designed six-week programme for South African corporates. Honest about what six weeks can produce. Rigorous about how it is documented.
A structured programme that moves them from reacting to running a real business.
Live sessions facilitating six pillars. Financial literacy built in. Every programme custom-designed for your sector and cohort. A 90-day plan they leave with.
Documentation mapped to ESD and Skills Development elements.
Structured for verification today and for the incoming Code requirements. Pre and post supplier assessments included.
A written account you can table without being the sole author of the argument.
Impact reporting beyond spend disbursed. Language for the budget conversation - before it happens, not after.
Graça Machel Trust - Women Creating Wealth
South Africa · Malawi · Tanzania · Zambia · Kenya
Why Most ESD Spend Doesn't Produce Capable Suppliers.
The B-BBEE Commission's own 2022 research found that nearly 40% of ESD funds went undeployed - not because corporates lacked the money, but because programmes couldn't absorb it usefully. GIBS confirmed in 2024 what most ESD managers already know: the system rewards breadth over depth, spend over development, documentation over outcomes. We can't change the scorecard. What we can do is design a programme that produces something real inside it - and documents it in a way that holds up to scrutiny.
2026 Policy Shift
ESD SCORECARD POINTS UNDER THE DRAFT AMENDMENTS - UP FROM 40
PROPOSED PROCUREMENT TARGET FROM 100% BLACK-OWNED SUPPLIERS - HIGHEST-WEIGHTED CRITERION
NEEDS ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE METRICS NOW REQUIRED FOR ESD POINT RECOGNITION
ESD FUNDS UNDEPLOYED ANNUALLY - FIVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS
The system is only half the problem.
Some founders arrive ready to build. They use every session, apply what they learn, and leave with a business that works differently. Others arrive ready to wait: for the grant, for the procurement opportunity. The training happens around them.
Understanding why engagement varies within the same cohort and what actually determines whether a founder uses what they learn, is built into how this programme is facilitated. Not as a theory. As a practice.
From Busy to Strategic
Six Pillars. One shift.
Every programme is custom-designed for the specific corporate, sector, and cohort - no two are identical. Designed around the key drivers of business - adapted for your sector, your cohort, and your supply chain reality. Course access continues after delivery. Every supplier leaves with a 90-day plan - not a certificate.
Done For You
A fully custom-designed programme. We handle design, delivery, and documentation. You refer the suppliers and receive the report.
- Programme designed around your sector, cohort, and ESD objectives
- Custom delivery across the 6 business development pillars, adapted to your timeline and cohort needs
- Attendance and engagement records
- Scorecard-mapped impact report
- Post-programme debrief call - reviewing cohort outcomes and documentation
First engagements · tight timelines · corporates who need compliant delivery without managing the process
Done With You
A custom-designed programme built with your input. Deeper documentation, executive-ready reporting, and supplier-level tracking structured for the needs analysis, performance metrics, and M&E reporting the incoming 2026 Code requirements propose.
- Everything in Foundation, plus:
- Structured supplier baseline assessment at programme intake
- Deep co-design sessions with your ESD team before delivery
- Executive impact report - structured for your social and ethics committee, not just your verifier
- Documentation structured for the needs analysis, performance metrics, and M&E reporting requirements proposed in the 2026 Code amendments.
- 90-day post-programme review call - assessing supplier progress against their 90-day plans
- Internal briefing document for your executive
ESD managers building internal buy-in · 2026 compliance preparation · budget review cycles
Done Together
A multi-year custom programme strategy. We design, deliver, and evolve the programme alongside your organisation. Cohort by cohort, year by year.
- Everything in Strategic, plus:
- Annual ESD strategy review, covering programme outcomes, cohort planning for the year ahead, and alignment to updated scorecard or Code requirements
- Multi-cohort programme tracking, enabling year-on-year comparison of outcomes across your supplier development portfolio
- Annual board-ready impact report, structured for integrated reporting and social and ethics committee presentation
- Direct advisory access to our strategy team for ESD-related decisions throughout the year
- Priority access to new programme content, research, and 2026 Code amendment updates as they are confirmed
Multi-year ESD strategies · boards treating ESD as investment · organisations ready to move from annual compliance spend to a strategic supplier development capability
A note on attendance: Not every supplier engages fully. Some attend because their corporate sponsor requires it. We design for the ones who show up - and document honestly for the ones who don't. Understanding why engagement varies within a cohort is built into how this programme is facilitated.
Most coaches tell you mindset. Most accountants tell you numbers. YTF do both.
Most ESD programmes are designed by facilitators who understand either the human side or the compliance side. Rarely both. The result is training that checks boxes but doesn't change how a founder actually runs their business.
This programme sits at the intersection of financial rigour and the science of behaviour change. That combination is not common in the ESD space - and it is why what gets built outlasts the programme itself.
"Every provider in this space has promised you ROI. Ask them to show you a supplier that's still actively trading in the supply chain three years after their programme ended."
- PHUTI MPHELO CA(SA), YAY TO FREEDOMCA(SA) credentials. Coaching in practice.
The financial and compliance modules are built by a Chartered Accountant. The documentation is structured for an auditor because the person who designed it knows exactly what an auditor looks for.
Financial and behavioural - not one without the other
Financial systems without behaviour change don't hold. Behavioural work without financial structure produces nothing verifiable. This programme addresses both.
Documentation you can defend
Engagement varies in every cohort. Our documentation reflects reality - because accurate records protect your programme at verification, and inflated ones don't.
Depth over breadth - by design
GIBS 2024 confirmed what most ESD managers suspect: the quality-quantity trade-off is real. We'd rather build something that lasts with fewer suppliers than disburse spend broadly and build nothing that survives.
For Corporates and ESD Managers
Your spend is mandatory.
What it builds does not
have to be optional.
We work with ESD Managers, Transformation Officers, and Procurement Heads who need a programme that produces defensible documentation, works across mixed supplier cohorts, and does not require them to manage the delivery themselves. Every programme is custom-designed for your organisation, your suppliers, and your sector. Whether your organisation calls it Business Development Support Services, a supplier mentorship programme, or an ESD coaching initiative - if the goal is building capable, supply-chain-ready businesses, this is what we design.
- -Custom ESD programme design and facilitation
- -CA(SA)-authored impact reporting mapped to scorecard elements
- -Supplier baseline assessments at programme intake
- -Skills Development Element 6 delivery
- -Documentation structured for the 2026 M&E reporting requirements
- -Developing 100% black-owned suppliers for the incoming preferential procurement targets
- -Written gap summary for your records and your executive
For SMEs in Corporate Supply Chains
You came for the access.
Stay for what makes you
ready to keep it.
You are here because your corporate partner requires it - or because there is access and opportunity attached. That is fine. The founders who get the most from this programme are the ones who decide to use it, not just attend it. Every programme is designed around the key drivers of a viable business, adapted for your sector and your supply chain reality.
- -Programme delivery across the 6 business development pillars, adapted to your sector and timeline
- -A business model built around your actual business
- -Financial literacy designed for corporate supply chain realities
- -Understanding how ESD funding works - what it covers and how to qualify for more
- -Compliance basics - what you need to stay in the supply chain
- -A plan you leave with, not a certificate for attending
- -Course access after the live programme ends
The person behind the programme.
Phuti Mphelo is a Chartered Accountant, Master NLP Practitioner, and Dual Elite Certified Neuroencoding Specialist with over 20 years of experience across finance departments in the private and public sector, business advisory, and entrepreneur coaching.
She serves as Master Coach for the Graça Machel Trust's Women Creating Wealth programme, delivering coaching across South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya. She has been on both sides of the ESD relationship: as a trainer of suppliers, and as a business owner who has navigated corporate supply chains herself.
She has been on both sides of the table: inside the finance departments in the corporate system as a CA, and outside it as a founder. That experience is not a credential she lists. It is the reason the conversations in the room are different from anything a textbook-trained facilitator can produce.
CREDENTIALS
- ✓CA(SA): Chartered Accountant, South Africa
- ✓Master NLP Practitioner
- ✓Dual Elite Certified Neuroencoding Specialist
- ✓B-BBEE ESD Programme Design & Delivery
- ✓Skills Development Facilitator (Element 6)
A readiness-first programme still delivers your points.
The DTIC's 2026 draft amendments propose shifting ESD recognition toward documented outcomes - needs analyses, performance metrics, and annual M&E reports per beneficiary. Whether or not the amendments pass in their current form, this is the direction of travel. Our documentation is already structured for it.
| Scorecard Indicator | What We Deliver | Verification Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier Development spend (2% NPAT - 10 pts) | Direct SD contributions structured and documented per beneficiary | CA(SA) impact reports · invoices · beneficiary agreements |
| Enterprise Development (1% NPAT - 5 pts) | ED structured as non-financial support with quantified monetary value | Hour logs · programme curricula · valuations per intervention |
| Quality of spend (2026 draft requirement) | Needs analysis, performance metrics, and M&E per beneficiary | Readiness assessments · pre/post reports · outcome tracking |
| Skills Development (Element 6) | Accredited skills delivery embedded in programme structure | ATR/WSP documentation · attendance registers · facilitator credentials |
| Measurable outcomes (incoming draft bonus points) | Turnover growth, job creation, and market access tracked per cohort | Year-on-year comparative data per beneficiary |
| Preferential Procurement 100% black-owned suppliers (proposed 25% TMPS - 7 pts) | Developing 100% black-owned suppliers to corporate supply chain standard | Supplier capability profiles · compliance documentation |
The January 2026 gazette is the most significant proposed revision to the B-BBEE Codes since 2013. It remains under public comment - the final form may differ. The direction will not reverse. An ESD manager whose programme already produces outcome evidence is ahead of this change regardless of how the amendments land.
What this looks like in practice.
Not outcome guarantees - evidence of what a well-designed, honestly-documented programme produces when both the corporate and the supplier show up.
Suppliers put through the programme
Across sectors and provinces
Countries reached via Graça Machel Trust
SA · Malawi · Tanzania · Zambia · Kenya
Years of CA(SA) and advisory experience
Finance · ESD · Coaching
Women Creating Wealth - coaching across four countries, not just one cohort.
Selected as Master Coach for the Graça Machel Trust's Women Creating Wealth programme, Phuti facilitated a multi-cohort supplier readiness programme for women entrepreneurs across South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya. The programme combined financial systems, business model development, and behavioural coaching - because the Trust understood that capability building requires both.
What we cannot do - and say so.
What we can do: build the financial and operational foundations that give a supplier their best possible chance - and produce the documentation that lets an ESD manager defend that work, internally, with confidence.
We cannot guarantee supplier success. No programme can. We cannot fix a procurement policy that will not buy from developed suppliers. We cannot guarantee every participant will use what the programme offers. We do not track supplier performance after the programme ends. That sits in the ESD manager's hands, and we say so clearly.
Why Most ESD Spend Doesn't Produce Capable Suppliers
A CA(SA)-authored briefing using B-BBEE Commission and GIBS research. Includes a scorecard mapping table for the 2026 Code requirements. Written for ESD managers who already know something is off - and need language to act on it.
- ✓What the B-BBEE Commission's own data shows about ESD fund utilisation
- ✓The GIBS 2024 research on quality vs quantity in ESD programmes
- ✓How the 2026 Code amendments change the measurement standard
- ✓What a readiness-first programme looks like mapped to your scorecard
- ✓Seven questions to ask any ESD programme provider - including us
Download the Briefing
Four pages. Sourced and citable.
ESD intelligence. Free to use.
Articles, research translations, and practical guides for ESD managers and SME suppliers. Currently in development.
What is Enterprise and Supplier Development? A Plain-Language Guide for South African Corporates
The scorecard explained simply. What ESD is, where it sits in B-BBEE, and why it carries the most operational complexity of any element.
Supplier Readiness - The Only Thing ESD Spend Can Actually Build
No ESD programme can guarantee supplier success. But it can build the financial, psychological, and operational foundations that make success possible.
The 2026 B-BBEE Code Amendments Explained - What Every ESD Manager Needs to Know Now
The DTIC's January 2026 gazette is the most significant revision to the B-BBEE Codes since 2013. Five changes. What they mean. What to do before verification.
You're in a Corporate ESD Programme. Here's What to Actually Do With It.
Most SMEs attend because they have to. The ones who thrive are the ones who decide to use the six weeks. Here is the practical difference between attending and using.
Why Capable Suppliers Fail in Corporate Supply Chains - and Why It's Not a Skills Problem
The most capable founders sometimes produce the least change. The research on why - and what a programme designed for both the financial and behavioural gap looks like.
How to Access ESD Funding as a South African SME - A Practical Guide
What ESD funding is, what it covers, and what corporates actually look for in a beneficiary. The guide most SMEs never get before they need it.
Let's look at your programme honestly.
A 45-minute ESD Programme Audit. We assess your current programme structure, identify the gaps, and give you a written summary - whether or not you engage us further.