Online Annual Report 2009

Corporate social investment

We’ve exceeded our CSI spending goal but want to increase our spending on something that has gained in importance: feeding our people.



Corporate social responsibility scorecard as at June 2009

Total Group social investment including supplier and staff contributions
R23.5m
R4.5m 		Total Group social investment excluding supplier and staff contributions
R20.5m		 Total investment in feeding projects
(container kitchens, feeding schemes, vegetable tunnels, Foodbank)
R5.9m
     
Total investment in icon projects
(tools-to-teach, tools-to-play, excellence in education awards, Men-on-the-Side of the Road, Massmart bursary scheme)
R8.3m 		Total investment in 'other' projects
(e.g. Starfish Foundation, Tomorrow Trust Wheelchair fund)
R9.3m

Note: Icon projects refer to chain specific educational programmes that address specific needs, such as early childhood development.
     

Scorecard commentary

Each year Massmart renews its commitment to spending 1% of profit after tax on corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives. This year, we exceeded that goal by 0.60%, excluding supplier and staff contributions. Because we’ve done this at a time when many organisations are reducing their contribution to CSI programmes, we’re especially proud of our achievement. The increase in the level of our investment can be attributed mainly to the number of partnerships we’ve entered into with government related agencies and the fact that we launched a Massmart bursary scheme for disadvantaged African students.

Our bursary programme sponsors learners studying at the University of Pretoria to whom we’ve committed to providing five bursaries per year on a renewable but indefinite basis. These bursaries are available to African, mainly women students, who are studying towards BCom degrees. Each bursary covers the costs of tuition, textbooks, residence fees and meals. Bursary students also receive a monthly living allowance and they are able to join our OCSA primary healthcare plan.

Besides the bursaries, our focus on partnering with state organsations has resulted in many worthwhile donations, such as a gift of 8 304 emergency fluorescent portable lanterns to the South African Police Services (SAPS). We also distributed 500 stationery packs to the South African Police Services (SAPS) orphans and encouraged our suppliers to join us in filling 4 000 food hampers for South African National Defense Force (SANDF) troops serving under UN mandate in Africa.

While we are proud of our involvement in these important initiatives, we do not want to lose focus on the programmes we consider the most important: those that feed people. We believe feeding projects should receive the greatest share of our corporate social investment spend. Currently this is not the case, so we are exploring responsible disengagement strategies for some of our long-standing “other” legacy projects to reallocate these funds to feeding initiatives.

One important advance we did make in expanding our feeding involvement this year was the donation of 3,000 kg of Max-a-Meal to Foodbank South Africa, with a commitment to make an ongoing donation of 6,000 kg of this highly nutritious meal on an annual basis. We also launched a vegetable tunnel project through Builders Warehouse that delivered 90 vegetable tunnels to 30 schools in areas of need. These projects will now occupy a permanent place alongside our existing programme of feeding initiatives which include providing financial support to established feeding schemes and providing fully equipped container kitchens to disadvantaged schools.

To understand what CSI is capable of achieving, don’t look at what we’ve spent. Look at what we’ve spent it on.

see our CSI stories in action below…

Caroline Sithole and her sister, daphne, are learners at frikkie Smidt primary School in hartbeespoort. There are 203 children here and all are supported by the national Schools nutrition programme. at only R1.29 per child per day, however, the funding is minimal and there’s nothing left over for the school to establish a proper kitchen. in support of children’s charity centurus colleges Trust, makro has been providing food and donating fixtures and equipment since July 2008. learners now receive two hot meals five days a week, and have benefited from R40 280 of the R1.1 million makro has spent in the area since last year.
Students need more than just passion to get into university. They need high marks to ensure admissions offices take notice of them. with his passion for public relations in mind, kante Bila joined a holiday tuition programme run by Tomorrow Trust, a non-profit organisation assisting children of families affected by hiV/aids. The trust works to improve these learners’ chances of being accepted at tertiary institutions by offering extra lessons and school holiday workshops. makro has been supporting the initiative since 2006 and has made R1.45 million available to students like kante. his extra studying earned him an a in accounting in his final year of school and today he’s working toward a tertiary diploma.


Wilfred Adams first met his business partners while doing a course with Builders warehouse’s men-on-the-Side of the Road programme. his dream was to run his own construction company, and today he stands in front of a cluster of townhouses in greenstone, Johannesburg that his company helped build. Builders warehouse and massbuild division have supported the building-related skills development programme since 2005. So far, 500 previously unemployed men and women like wilfred and his partners have been trained in bricklaying, plumbing, painting and electrical work. always hands-on, wilfred did the plumbing himself in all four of these units.
Game Amalunchbox project beneficiaries.