Eskom is a national presence that is represented throughout the country by massive cooling towers that dominate rural landscapes or kilometres of high voltage power lines that criss-cross the nation bringing electricity, development and prosperity to communities.
Operating in a country where first and third-world economies exist side by side, the obligations of the national electricity supplier go further than simply providing electricity to power business and industry, says Haylene Liberty, CEO of the Eskom Development Foundation-a section 21 company established in 1998 to coordinate and integrate all of Eskom’s corporate social investment activities.
The primary aim of the Foundation is to provide support to economic] and social projects and also to promote the growth and sustainability of small, medium and micro enterprisesparticularly when they are in communities where Eskom implements its capital expansion projects.
In many instances our facilities are placed outside urban centres and offer major opportunities for communities living in rural areas-usually in the form of creating small businesses or supplying local labour.
The Foundation expresses its support to the SME sector by inviting applicants to apply for grants which are used to help businesses grow, employ people from the local community and develop strategies that enhance their sustainability.
Small business development support takes the form of entrepreneurial capacity building programmes, the facilitation of access to funds and Eskom’s procurement policies. These interventions enable Eskom to contribute towards job creation and the establishment of small and medium enterprises (SMME’s) in the national economy.
SMME’s have also been invited to participate in a management development programme, developed by Eskom’s Management and Business Development Fund, which focuses on entrepreneurship.
The objective of this initiative is to develop competent and sustainable suppliers of quality products and services.To accommodate the potential cash flow problems that many
SMME’s face, Eskom has altered its debtor payment policy to ensure prompt payment to SMME’s.
In 2001, the small business development programme focused on promoting
incentives that would lead to the establishment of manufacturing, services and agricultural processing businesses.
Support also goes deeper, with Eskom proudly pointing out its support of government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) through its core activity of providing electricity to disadvantaged communities which, since 1989, has seen about 64% of households connected to the national grid.
Eskom’s programme brought power to the people in more than 2 000 000 homes.
On the education front, Eskom has since 1997 provided additional training to almost 40 000 unqualified and under-qualified educators and backed this with the building of science laboratories, mathematics resources, books and educational toys.
On the post-matric front support is offered through the provision of bursaries. ‘The company has also invested more than R5-million in recent years in postgraduate research at universities to strengthen this capacity in institutions.
On the HIV/Aids front, Eskom evaluated the impact of the pandemic on staff and their families and then introduced a comprehensive programme internally to address the problem on a multi-faceted basis. This included education programmes and a formalised corporate response to supporting infected individuals as part of a comprehensive Human Resources response.
As part of a vigorous internal focused people development drive, Eskom has invested at least R393-million in developing its people across all levels of employment.
The commitment begins with an adult basic development programme for illiterate adults and extends through to high-level courses and post-graduate studies focused on enhancing technical and other skills.
‘On behalf of Eskom, the Foundation also supports registered welfare projects in communities with donations. Donations are only considered for registered, non-profit, voluntary or community-based organisations. The donation must support and promote and harmonise its activities in the local communities to promote goodwill in the community.
‘As a company which contributes to the development of the national economy, it is only fitting that we return some of the revenue, derived from the activities of our customers, to the less privileged in our country and work towards helping them become full participants in the formal economy and giving them the opportunity to achieve their dreams, she concluded.