Financial
resultsCorporate Social Investment (CSI)
There are commentators who believe that it is enough for business to pay taxes, and that social upliftment is a distraction from business that should be the responsibility of the state. We disagree! It is clear to us that it requires the combined resources and expertise of both the private and public sector to overcome the social impoverishment caused by South Africa’s apartheid legacy.
Each of our trading entities donates one percent of after-tax profit to meet pressing social needs, with a preference for contributing towards educational initiatives that assist the poorest of the poor. We also try, wherever possible, to identify opportunities to leverage our retail capabilities to optimize the impact of our social upliftment activities. For example our food procurement skills are valuable for supporting school feeding schemes.
Corporate Social Investment scorecard 2012
For a year-on-year comparison click here
Feeding South African school children
All of our divisions participate in our group-wide priority to provide assistance to school-feeding programmes in an effort to improve food security amongst vulnerable South Africans:
- Makro provides funding to established feeding schemes such as the African Childrens Feeding Scheme,
- Game's Ama-Lunchbox container kitchens, provide immediate solutions for the hygienic preparation of food at schools participating in the education departments school nutrition programme, and
- Builders Warehouse school vegetable tunnels (which are purchased from the Robin Good Foundation) provide fresh vegetables that supplement the dry ingredients provided by the education department for school feeding.
- Massmart holdings makes regular bi-annual donations to Foodbank South Africa for onward distribution to those in need.
Stocking classrooms with Tools-to-Teach
Our Game stores have a compelling back to school merchandise and have become a regular destination for back-to-schoolers to purchase their stationery needs. With this in mind they developed their Tools-to-Teach programme which involves distributing packs containing a year’s supply of stationery to deserving learners and educators.
Rewarding Excellence in Education
Makro launched its Excellence in Education Awards programme in partnership with the department of education to recognise the achievements of underprivileged schools that overcome challenging circumstances to produce good results in final year matriculation examinations. Winning schools are awarded Makro gift vouchers of up to R40 000 for the purchase of stationery or sports equipment.
Improving employability
Due to South Africa’s high unemployment rate, our educational focus extends beyond school classrooms and includes providing employment-related training to unemployed adults. .
- The Builders warehouse Fundi programme teaches artisan skills to unemployed men and women to enable them to find employment in our stores or with our building contractor customers.
- Our partnerships with Hot Dog Café and the National Youth Development Fund helps to provide unemployed youths with access to subsidized Hot Dog Café and Coffee Stop franchises at our stores.
- The Massmart Rural Women’s Development Fund established with the Women’s Development Businesses (WDB, an NGO, helps rural women establish new retail-related businesses in rural areas.
