the expanded BBBEE strategy was set by the Preferential Procurement Act of 2000, which sanctioned preferential treatment for historically disadvantaged groups in the distribution of state procurement contracts. The regulations accompanying the act, promulgated in 2001, outlined a point system by which preference is allocated in the evaluation of public tenders – in addition to the competitiveness of a bid's price, "points" were given for the bidder's contribution to black economic empowerment. Shortly after the passage of the act, the first industry-specific BEE charters were published – the Petroleum and Liquid Fuels Charter in 2000 and the Mining Charter in 2002, both given regulatory status under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. The Mining Charter, in particular, embraced principles later codified under BBBEE, identifying seven "pillars" of BEE (only one of which was ownership) and setting out a BEE "scorecard" for businesses. At the 51st National Conference of the ANC in December 2002, President Thabo Mbeki committed the government to drawing up a "Transformation Charter" involving a consolidated and clarified strategy on BEE. 2003 Act The BBBEE Act passed in 2003, under the custodianship of the Department of Trade and Industry, and commenced in 2004. The Act's stated objectives were to facilitate broad-based black economic empowerment by: promoting economic transformation in order to enable meaningful participation of black people in the economy; achieving a substantial change in the racial composition of ownership and management structures and in the skilled occupations of existing and new enterprises; increasing the extent to which communities, workers, cooperatives and other collective enterprises own and manage existing and new enterprises and increasing their access to economic activities, infrastructure and skills training; increasing the extent to which black women own and manage existing and new enterprises, and increasing their access to economic activities, infrastructure and skills training; promoting investment programmes that lead to broad-based and meaningful participation in the economy by black people in order to achieve sustainable development and general prosperity; empowering rural and local communities by enabling access to economic activities, land, infrastructure, ownership and skills; and promoting access to finance for black economic empowerment.During this period, under President Mbeki, the government's approach to BEE became "increasingly focused and assertive," and it became unambiguously committed to maximalist or broad-based BEE, with a broader and deeper scope than mere black ownership of business. BEE was seen as proceeding along three main lines: in addition to