Social investment is most needed in the far-flung, underdeveloped regions of the country, but coordinators say they are often hamstrung by a corporate culture centred in city headquarters.
Corporate social investment practitioners pointed out at a recent meeting of the Mpumalanga CSI Forum that, although an estimated R5-billion is spent annually by companies, there is still a crisis of expectations on the ground.
Mainly as a result of a directive in the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, about
60% of companies on a national level invest within the communities that are geographically close to their operations.
However, budget allocations and other important decisions are taken in city boardrooms. If local CSI programmes are to make a difference, they need the budget to do so, forum participants pointed out.
‘Many CSI programmes are run from head office, not at branch level. How do they find out what is going on in Mpumalanga, for instance?” asked TJ Mare, chief executive of the Nelspruit Community Forum.
A Nelspruit-based CSI programme manager pointed out that he is inundated with requests from communities living in the footprint of his forestry company, but his mandate is set by the board of directors in Johannesburg.
The Mpumalanga CSI Forum, started by German development organisation GTZ in partnership with Nelpruit publishing company HomeGrown Magazines, is a networking and lobbying platform for regional development.
Similar groups are being convened in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town by national CSI non-profit organisation Greater Capital.
Tlou Keetse, Old Mutual’s Mpumalanga provincial manager, said employee volunteer programmes have proved useful as corporate ‘eyes and ears” in helping farflung communities.
‘If each employee can adopt a project in his or her community, we can make South Africa better,” Keetse said.
‘The company gives each employee access to funds to contribute towards a worthwhile project in his or her community. It cuts through red tape, and the money gets allocated where it’s needed without any fuss.”
Absa’s CSI general manager, Mihloti Mathye, said that last year staff volunteers had contributed more towards CSI projects than ever before, despite the recession. ‘They donated not only money, but time and skills.”
Forum participants agreed it was essential for regional CSI programmes to find ways to align with government programmes, particularly around job creation and food security.
‘The government is the country’s biggest employer and if it prioritises areas of development, 99.9% of companies will align with that,” said Keetse.
‘The issue is coordination — money is spent all over the place and the results are not in line with the resources spent.” In turn, there was a warning from the government that if corporate investment was not seen to accelerate social development, compliance may become the norm.
‘Although in mining there is legislation on social and labour plans, maybe as government we need a way of ensuring that companies comply with that legislation,” said Joyce Pakade, the chief director of trade and industrial development, in Mpumalanga’s department of economic development, environment and tourism.
‘As things are now, some companies have these plans and others don’t. CSI programmes tend to benefit the same communities, while other communities still live in abject poverty. We need a way of regulating this to ensure other poor communities that fall within the province also benefit from the riches of the province, regardless of their location.”