Mandatory Grants

Mandatory grants reimburse organisations for their skills levy contributions.  It is not taxable since it is not income to an organisation. Employee training and development is its sole purpose.

Qualifying Criteria

A levy-paying employer must meet the following criteria:

  • Register under the Skills Development Levies Act.
  • Keep your Skills Development Levies Act registration up-to-date. Employers in South Africa are liable for a skills development levy determined by their salary bills. There is a 1% levy on salary bills. This levy does not apply to companies with wage bills below R500 000.
  • All levy payments must be up to date at the time of the approval and for the reporting period.
  • Employ a skills development facilitator.
  • Ensure the WSP and ATR are submitted by the required deadline.
  • As prescribed by the SETA, the WSP for the previous reporting period has been submitted and implemented.
  • Employers with recognition agreements must demonstrate that they consulted with recognised trade unions and that the union approved WSP and ATR.

Mandatory Grant Payment

Mandatory Grants are paid quarterly. Depending on whether the application is approved, an employer will receive between one (1) and four (4) mandatory grant payments. Mandatory Grant payments are calculated as 20% of the total levies received from SARS from 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

2023 – 2024 Payment dates:

The prospective dates for Mandatory Grant payments are:

  • September 2023
  • December 2023

Inter-SETA transfer

Inter-SETA Transfer Request (IST-01) must be completed by organisations registered with the incorrect SETA or wishing to transfer. Completed IST-01s must be submitted to the relevant SETA once authorised by the relevant person. The SDF may not approve this request. The Inter SETA Transfer process takes approximately 4-6 months, depending on the previous SETA’s approval.

SETA Transfer

NOTE: Ensure you fill out the correct SETA details when registering with SARS to prevent future Inter SETA Transfer requests. A company’s registered/trading name also needs to be changed.

PROCEDURE FOR THE SUBMISSION OF WSP-ATR AND PTP – PTR

On an annual basis the FoodBev SETA will publish the required submission deadline and supply the required WSP, ATR, PIVOTAL training plans and reports to employers with due consideration for submission deadlines.

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Phase One: Appointment of Skills Development Facilitator (SDF)

New SDFs need to register on the FoodBev SETA (INDICIUM) system and upload the SDF appointment/ confirmation letter. The newly appointed SDF must upload the “SDF letter of appointment” on the company letterhead on MIS System.

The letter of appointment should contain the newly appointed SDFs contact details, ID number and confirmation that they have been appointed by the entity as the SDF.

The letter should be signed by the manager of the SDF of the entity or delegated authority to appoint an SDF in the organisation

The Skills Development Facilitator can be registered as a primary or a secondary SDF for one company. The Primary SDF has all SDF rights however the secondary SDF’s rights are limited to capturing reports and view only (i.e. cannot submit WSP reports on behalf of the organisation).

SDF is responsible for the following:

  • To add/register any new clients onto their SDF dashboard.
  • Uploading the SDF appointment letter.

Follow these steps to register as a Skills Development Facilitator (SDF).

The SDF must register online and upload the SDF appointment letter. The letter must indicate that the SDF is replacing the previous SDF and must be authorised by manager of the SDF of the entity, or delegated authority to appoint a SDF in the organisation.

The company is responsible to notify FoodBev SETA upon appointment of a new SDF. The new SDF thereafter must register online. Any queries with uploading the SDF appointment letter should be directed to the Grants Administrator by email (mandatorygrants@foodbev.co.za)

FoodBev SETA needs to accept the company’s registration and grant access to the relevant SDF of the specific employer, before the company will be able to complete the Mandatory Grant submission (ATR/ WSP).

For more information, contact Heidi Foba on +27(0) 11 253 7344 or HeidiF@FoodBev.co.za and Busisiwe Ngatsane on +27(0) 11 253 7377 or Bisisiwe@FoodBev.co.za

Phase Two: Accessing The Annexure 2 Form

 1.  Capturing The Wsp-Atr Data

The SDF can access Indicium from the FBS website (www.foodbev.co.za), on the home page

  • Employers are required to submit the Mandatory Grant application (Annexure 2) electronically (online),
  • To access mandatory grant application forms – use the “Financial year 2020” button and complete all forms.
  • Please note that forms for planning and reporting do not have separate buttons. All forms are under the Mandatory Grant Application Forms 2020/21.
  • Employers can submit the annexure 2 using bulk upload.
  • Once the WSP-ATR data has been submitted on Indicium, no further changes can be made on the system.
  • FoodBev SETA will not accept hard copy or manual grant submissions.

2.  Submission Cycle

The Annual Training Report (ATR) is a follow-up on the WSP, as it reports on the education and training interventions that were delivered in the previous year. The ATR and Pivotal Report must reflect all training conducted:

The Workplace Skills Plan describes the main skills development activities that are planned for the upcoming year and must reflect all planned training

3. Linking Of Organisations – Consolidated Application

Organisations with more than one SDL number can submit a consolidated Mandatory Grant Application to report all the organisations rather than submit a separate application for each organisation.

  • The SDF needs to ensure that all organisations are identified and linked to the mother organisation.
  • An employer must submit a consolidated application for a number of subsidiary organisations. Click here to download the guide on how to use the link.

An Employer must:

  • Submit a request form to link the organisation to FoodBev SETA Skills Planning Department before the submission date (30 April).
  • Subsidiary organisations are linked for the current financial year.
    • Skills development levy contributions can still be contributed to each SDL number and once the mother organisation is approved, Mandatory Grants will be paid to all SDL numbers that have contributed.
    • SDF must indicate which banking details to be used to pay out to the linked companies by submitting the letter from the bank.
  • De-linking can only be effected after payment cycle.

4. Document Uploads

The employer must provide the following supporting documentation which must be submitted together with the Mandatory grant application:

  • For existing companies – the company must submit a Bank stamped letter or cancelled cheque confirming banking details;
  • For new companies – the company must submit an original Bank stamped letter confirming banking details or an original cancelled cheque;
  • Authorisation and Stakeholder support declaration with all of the required authorised signatures;
  • Proof of training must be submitted (Uploaded) for evaluation of application. – (only send proof per course/learning programme completed);
  • Complete change of banking details for employers who have changed their banking details. (It is the company’s responsibility to inform FBS regarding change of banking details).

5. Submitting The Mandatory Grant Application

To submit your applications please click the “submit” button on the main page once you have completed all the forms.

A system generated acknowledgment letter will be sent to the primary SDF.

The application status will be on submitted, until the validation and evaluation processes are completed.

Phase Three: Evaluation

The evaluation process of the WSPs/ATRs and PIVOTAL Plans/Reports will be finalised within 90 days after the submission due date.

Companies that have submitted the mandatory grant applications with outstanding information and have met minimum requirements for compliance may be contacted to submit the outstanding information to ensure compliance within the time approved by the Accounting Authority

  • If any part of the document is incomplete or incorrect we will notify the SDF/Employer at our earliest convenience. Insufficient detail or errors on these applications need to be corrected and resubmitted to Skills Planning Department (FBS) before the application can be submitted to the Board/Delegate for approval.
  • System generated Referral letter for the Annexure 2 will be sent to the primary SDF.
  • If the resubmission of documents is not received within the evaluation phase, the application will be regarded as a late submission, rejected and the employer will forfeit their grant payment.
  • A system generated Rejection letter for the Annexure 2 will be sent to the primary SDF.
  • The application status will be changed to Referred or Rejected after the evaluation processes are completed.
  • Copy of these letters will be available on the relevant employers file on Indicium under the section ‘Client relationship Management’.
Phase Four: Approval of Annexure 2

The successful evaluated outcomes and the mandatory grant applications will be submitted to the Accounting Authority for approval.

  • Once after Accounting Authority Approval, the Skills Planning Manager will change the status to Approved.
  • System generated Approval letter for the Annexure 2 will be sent to the primary SDF.
Phase Five: Payment

FoodBev SETA shall pay the mandatory grant (20%) to the successful mandatory grant applicant on a quarterly basis.

The following documents must be completed and submitted electronically on the FoodBev SETA Indicium System which is accessible from the website.

Deadlines and extensions

  • An application for Annexure 2 (mandatory grants) must be submitted by 30 April 2020 for the 2020/2021 financial year.
  • An extension of up to a maximum of one month from the date contemplated in sub-regulation (2) of Skills Development Act (SDA) may be granted by the Board/Delegate.
  • Request for Extension form must be submitted to the SETA on or before 15 April 2020. (Any application received after 15 April 2020 will not be considered). Click here to download the form.
  • The applications will be submitted to Board/Delegate for approval and applicant will be notified of the outcome.
  • Only employers that have been granted an extension will have access to the Indicium system to submit Annexure 2.

Discretionary Grants

Discretionary Grants are funds allocated to encourage or support education, training, skills development, and other food and beverage manufacturing skills development activities. PIVOTAL and non-PIVOTAL programmes will be implemented using funding allocated to the SETA (including strategic and special) to implement the SETA’s APP. 

Terminations are agreements between the company, learner, and/or training provider to end a learning programme. In these cases, FoodBev SETA reserves the right to terminate a learning programme.

Learning programme extension requests refer to learning programme implementation plans that need to be extended for a variety of reasons.

Information and documents for various programmes can be found below.

Special Projects

Special Projects address the FoodBev SETA’s strategic priorities, including national or industry imperatives, as outlined in the SP and APP.  

STRATEGIC PROJECTS AND PARTNERSHIPS FUNDING FRAMEWORK

Funding for Strategic Projects are linked to the NSDP and FoodBev Manufacturing SETA’s Annual Performance Plan. FoodBev SETA may disburse funds for pivotal and non-pivotal Strategic Projects and Partnerships at its discretion. Priority will be given to the following interventions with the funds retained: 

  1. Ministerial partnership 
  2. TVET support 
  3. CET support 
  4. SME support 
  5. Community and rural support
  6. Schools support 
  7. International Exposure 
  8. Technological advancement (4IR, robotics, internet of things, etc) 
  9. HEI support

Guiding principles to establish the strategic project and partnership feasibility.

Relevance: Projects must show how proposed interventions address FoodBev SETA mandates and outline the partnership’s strategic objectives and national priorities.

Impact: Partnership projects must include an assessment of the socio-economic impact of their interventions, particularly how they address poverty, unemployment, and inequality.

Availability of funds: Determine whether funds are available for a specific initiative.

Risk: Strategic projects and partnership/s must identify potential risks, and those risks must be mitigated or reduced if the intervention is to succeed.

Uniqueness: An initiative must demonstrate its uniqueness to qualify as a strategic project. Similar projects must be clearly differentiated in how they differ or are unique.

Reporting: The strategic projects and partnerships reporting must align with the NSDP and FoodBev SETA’s APP.

Beneficiaries: How does it relate to the BBBEE code, women, and rural?

Qualification (Learning intervention): Addressing a skills gap (to be articulated).