HOW SEESA HAS GROWN

Our evolution reveals our own change for the better.

SEESA was established in South Africa in 1998 as a specialist service in all aspects of Labour and Labour relations.

SEESA’s aim has always been to serve and enhance the business interests of employers and to protect employers from biased and business-unfriendly Labour laws.

It now has three distinct divisions – SEESA Labour, SEESA BEE and SEESA Skills - led by its five executive directors and three non-executive directors.

SEESA’s two founders, Gideon Gerber and Dries Pretorius, continue to guide SEESA at a strategic level as non-executive directors and members of the board. They are the majority shareholders in the company.

SEESA proudly and confidently calls itself THE EMPLOYER’S COMPANY, protecting and promoting the interests of 35 000 South African business owners and employers.

• SEESA is the largest Employment Law Consultancy Group in South Africa, Namibia and Southern Africa today.
• SEESA was established in 1998 by Gideon Gerber who was an employment lawyer at the time and who continues to head SEESA today.
• From the outset SEESA recognised the need for an employer’s organisation to address the employment issues of the South African employer, particularly the smaller South African business.
• While the unions were well structured, there was nothing to properly protect smaller employers faced with complex employment contracts, employment laws, strikes, negotiations, disciplinary inquiries and disputes.
• There were also far too many hidden costs in the services offered by existing employment consultancies – which the smaller business could not afford.
• The outcome was SEESA, which charged a monthly fee without any additional costs whatsoever. It was a unique approach and SEESA is proud to confirm that this founding principle has never changed.

SEESA AND THE SMALLER BUSINESS

• The name SEESA initially referred to Small Enterprise Employers of South Africa but due to the large number of macro enterprises that signed up with SEESA, the acronym remains but the group’s client base is unlimited.
• SEESA was initially established to assist the smaller business in all employment and labour-related matters.
• The term ‘smaller business’ is misleading because it includes anything from 1 to 2 000-plus employees. The nature of a business, rather than its number of employers, often defines its size.
• For example, a thriving firm of five architects is not ‘smaller’ in terms of possible revenue than a factory with 1 000 employees.
• At SEESA we prefer to define the smaller business as any business that does not have an effective, well-qualified internal legal and human resources team. Accordingly, our clients range from farmers to professionals to entrepreneurs.