Today, the Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, met with over 40 representatives of the corporate sector responsible for corporate social investment (CSI) programmes to explore various ways in which the department can work together with the business sector to advance the developmental agenda in South Africa.
The roundtable discussion was also attended by representatives from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the National Development Agency (NDA).
Through this engagement, the department seeks to lobby the corporate sector to partner with us through their CSI especially in the following areas, as outlined in our budget vote last week:
- Investment in Early Childhood Development (ECD)
- Support for organisations dealing with vulnerable groups, especially those against gender-based violence
- Increasing the capacity of the social work profession to address the developmental challenges of our country
- HIV prevention, care and support programmes.
Addressing the delegates at the roundtable session in Johannesburg, Minister Dlamini highlighted that the corporate sector representatives that there is a need for collaboration, focusing on nodal areas where people are mostly poor and reliant on social assistance from the state.
Ms Dlamini’s view emanates from the call made by President Jacob Zuma in the State of the Nation Address about able-bodied people who rely on social grants that we need “to enable short-term beneficiaries to become self-supporting in the long run”.
To this effect, she said, “Our focus should not be on how to get these people off the social grant system, but in developing them to ensure that they don’t need the social grant in future.”
The Minister added that the corporate sector can make a huge contribution to both economic and social development of impoverished areas.
“It is important that the business community understand the developmental priorities of our country. We are aware that many business organisations have and continue to play an important role in our communities. During the recent natural disasters many business organisations provided much needed humanitarian assistance to families and communities that were affected. As government we would like to record our appreciation for the continued collaboration and we look forward to working together to improve the lives of our people,” said Minister Dlamini.
The Minister highlighted that despite sustained economic growth in the past few years, South Africa is still confronted by many developmental challenges that government alone cannot successfully address.
Also present at the roundtable session was the Vice President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), Adv Brenda Madumise who stressed the importance of striking a balance between profit and social responsibility. She also highlighted that business South Africa has long adopted the Global Sullivan Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility.
The Global Sullivan Principles refer to the support for universal human rights, equal opportunities, respect for freedom of association, levels of employee compensation, training, health and safety, sustainable development, fair competition and working in partnership to improve the quality of life.
“In addition to legislative mandate business South Africa has fully embraced the concept of social responsibility. This was reflected by the introduction of the Social Responsibility Index at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as early as 2004,” Advocate Madumise said
A desk top review of the current patterns in development funding shows that business spent a large portion of the current CSI funding on education, health and community development initiatives.
The roundtable discussion also agreed on the following:
- The need to coordinate CSI funding and initiatives throughout the country with focus on the five priorities of government
- Collaboration between government and the business sector should go beyond funding as the sector has a wealth of expertise that government can tap into to improve service delivery
- Setting up of a joint development fund between government and the business sector
- Agree on funding modalities
- Setting up a joint task team
- BUSA will through JSE conduct a mapping of current CSI initiatives
Enquiries:
Thapelo Sakoan
Cell: 078 453 6750
Abram Phahlamohlaka
Cell: 082 928 6590
