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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT


VenFin’s three levels of corporate social responsibility were mentioned earlier and its obligation to shareholders was dealt with under Corporate Governance. In this section its responsibilities towards the community (to be a worthy citizen grateful of the goodwill received from the public) and to staff (to ensure that their work remains a meaningful and rewarding experience) receive attention.


GROUP ETHICS

VenFin’s commitment to ethical behaviour is contained in the following published documents:

  • Code of ethics
  • Internet policy
  • Disciplinary code
  • Gifts and donations policy

The Board was responsible for the establishment and distribution of these documents with compliance being monitored by means of management structures, internal audit and the group’s central forensic function.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY

M&I, in accordance with the Employment Equity Act, strives to afford all staff the opportunity to realise their full potential. M&I’s management and personnel are continuously involved in determining training and development needs and in the implementation and monitoring of a labour plan. Special attention is given to those groups which, because of historic reasons, might be in a disadvantaged position. In accordance with the requirements of the Employment Equity Act, M&I annually submits a labour plan to the Department of Labour.

Because of the nature of its operations, to provide, inter alia, core services to VenFin, M&I’s workforce is characterised by the following:

  • A high level of expertise within the top structure of the organisation and in various specialised divisions
  • A young employee profile, especially with regard to management
  • A low turnover rate of staff and, consequently, limited opportunities for new appointments

M&I believes that the quality of its staff affords it an important sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore it believes that its success does not lie in the uniformity of its staff but in the diversity and development of their collective talents. For these, space and opportunity will always be created.

Human resource policies and procedures also address the issues of non-discrimination, child labour, disciplinary practices, human rights et al.

SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

The Company has a duly constituted safety and health committee, required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act. This committee assists the Board in ensuring that the Company provides and maintains a safe and healthy risk-free environment for staff and visitors by identifying risks and ensuring that controls designed to mitigate these risks are effective and complied with.

HIV/AIDS POLICY

From the perspective of an investment holding company, the risk of HIV/Aids comprises two elements, namely:

Group risk

Given the potential impact of HIV/Aids on the markets, on human capital cost of employment and on the operational processes of the various businesses invested in, this risk is managed within the governance structures of the various companies.

VenFin monitors the progress of these policies and strategies against best practice standards.

Company risk

VenFin and M&I have a formal HIV/Aids policy and are committed to managing the pandemic and the business risks associated with it actively. Its policy makes provision, inter alia, for the following:

  • Compliance with all legal requirements as far as HIV/Aids is concerned
  • No discrimination against employees or potential employees based on their HIV status
  • Strict confidential treatment of information on the HIV status of employees
  • General measures to prevent accidental infection

Remedi Medical Aid Scheme, of which most of M&I’s staff are members, has a management plan for HIV/Aids and employees can participate in it by choice.

COMMUNICATION TO STAKEHOLDERS

The Board places great emphasis on communication to shareholders and other stakeholders to ensure that they are kept appropriately informed on matters affecting the group.

The following are recognised as stakeholders in the Company:

  • Shareholders and lenders as providers of capital
  • The State as policy-maker and regulator
  • The investment community as interested party
  • The community, through the creation of employment, as part benefactor of taxes paid by profitable organisations, and as a recipient of social contributions

VenFin is committed to transparency and disclosure of relevant and appropriate information in its Annual Report and through other communication channels to ensure a proper evaluation of the performance of the Company.

CORPORATE SOCIAL INVESTMENT

Corporate citizenship, namely the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, endorses the principle that no business exists in isolation but is undeniably an integral part of the environment in which operations take place. In its relations with all stakeholders (clients, personnel and the community), VenFin strives to be a value partner.

The focus of the Company’s donation programme is primarily on the development of young people from disadvantaged communities as well as to assisting people in need, knowing that social investment brings dignity and a sense of hope.

Donations to deserving institutions are usually made over specific periods and although they cover quite a wide range, there is one noticeable exception: political parties. Although the Company respects the individual’s right of choice to get involved with these organisations, it does not exercise a choice itself.

During the past year, the Company has been involved in the following projects and institutions:

Entrepreneurship and training

SA College for Tourism (SACT) – the demand for the services of this College, where especially young black women from previously disadvantaged communities are trained for careers in the hospitality industry, has increased to the extent that 90 students from eight Southern African countries were enrolled this year – 50% more than the previous year. To make provision for this intake, some structural changes had to be made to the Panorama Guesthouse in Graaff-Reinet, a subsidiary of the SACT.

Besides following courses in culinary arts, food and beverage studies, room and front-of-house services and guesthouse management, the students gain excellent practical experience from exposure to public events – during the past year these have included eleven wedding receptions, four large banquets and 22 conferences, while a restaurant was run during a large Eastern Cape golf tournament.

The excellent work of the College has been acclaimed by two recent audits: one by Educor, South Africa’s largest private education institution, and the other by THETA (the Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Education and Training Authority) during an unannounced on-site visit. The SACT received three perfect ratings from THETA, the only training provider who could achieve this rating thus far, while Educor in its report commended the quality of the training team and the practical nature of the course.

Southern African Wildlife College – since 1997 this College, on the western boundary of the Kruger National Park, has trained and empowered people from Africa to manage and conserve some of the world’s most biologically diverse areas. This training has proved to be extremely valuable to transfrontier conservation areas in Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Besides training in the management and conservation of natural resources, courses are also presented in personnel management skills and community conservation strategies, while field trips provide students with sound practical experience.

SciMathUS – after six years this post-matric programme of the University of Stellenbosch, which gives talented black students from disadvantaged communities the opportunity to gain access to mainstream higher education, is well under way. The success of the programme is evident from the number of students involved in it since 2001 who are now following degree courses, with mathematics, science and accounting as major subjects.

Many students come from very low income families and some of them travel from places as far afield as Wellington and Mitchell’s Plain by train, car or taxi to attend classes starting at 08:00 in the morning. The most needy students are offered accommodation in Stellenbosch. These expenses are afforded from the budget of SciMathUS.

At the end of 2006, 47 students from the Western, the Eastern and the Northern Cape as well as Gauteng and the Free State completed the National Senior Certificate examination, with a significant improvement in their mathematics, science and accounting results. Most of these students are currently studying at the University of Stellenbosch.

Paul Roos Academy – has almost come full circle with the first intake of Gr. 7 learners in 2003. This group, now in Gr. 11, will receive their last holiday tuition during this year and will write matric in 2008. For the Academy this examination will provide an excellent value test of the investment made in these learners over five years.

However, academic achievement is only one side of the coin of this project, which also focuses on identifying leadership talent in disadvantaged schools and on assisting these learners by providing additional tuition to realise their full potential. The growth in self-confidence, visible at an early stage, as well as the development of other skills, ensures that these learners are just so much better prepared to face the future.

In 2006, a total of 237 learners from Gr. 7-10 received tuition from the Academy. During school holidays they are accommodated in the hostels of Paul Roos Gymnasium and Rhenish and also take part in sport and other educational activities.

Rally to Read – celebrates its tenth year with a proud record. Since this literacy programme got under way in 1998, R21.5 million has been invested by Rally to Read in the quality of literacy training in some of the most remote areas of the country. This year an additional R4.3 million will be spent at the 135 schools participating in the programme.

Annually in May, convoys of off-road vehicles depart from various centres to deliver books and other educational material to some of the country’s most neglected schools. This year a total of 425 vehicles visited nine areas in eight provinces. VenFin is one of approximately 100 sponsors of the project.

Equip – is a school development programme of the National Business Initiative which focuses on leadership and the quality of education at historically disadvantaged schools. VenFin’s co-sponsorship of this project is evident at two secondary and three primary schools in the Stellenbosch region.

Good progress has been made at two of the schools, while unfortunately conflict and disputes in one of the school management teams and a lack of strong leadership by principals at other schools have hampered progress. As far as teacher development is concerned, more than fifteen teachers from five schools have been invited to register for an advanced certificate in education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Beyers Naudé School Development Programme (BNSDP) – this programme is managed by Kagiso Trust, which has dedicated itself over more than 20 years to social justice in some of the poorest rural areas in the country. The programme concentrates on the sustainable development of rural schools in the former homeland Venda, which is plagued by poverty, a shortage of facilities and resources, poor teaching standards and dismal results.

Wherever the BNSDP is implemented, the morale and the functioning of school communities improve, absenteeism and vandalism are reduced, more learners enter for the matric examination and the pass rate increases. In one of the schools taking part in the programme the pass rate increased from 44% to 79.8% over two years. A total of 766 children from nine BNSDP schools wrote matric in 2005, 170 of whom passed with exemption, while 34 distinctions were attained. Six of the schools achieved a pass rate higher than the national average.

The BNSDP was launched in 2004 as a living legacy to the values and principles practised by Dr Beyers Naudé, founder of the Kagiso Trust. VenFin is a co-sponsor of this project.

Africa Genome Education Institute – a once-off contribution was made to support the Institute’s Teaching Biology Project, an initiative designed to develop appropriate content for the teaching of new scientific material in schools as well as providing training opportunities to science educators. The project is in line with the Ministry of Education’s revised National Curriculum Statements (NCS) and, with a total of 362 598 educators affected by the NCS, there is a great demand for in-service training.

Environment

WWF South Africa (WWF-SA) – is a conservation organisation and the channel through which VenFin exercises its concern for the natural environment. During the past year WWF-SA has sharpened its focus on the interplay between biodiversity and the impact of human activities. This focus comprises the following three initiatives:

  • The Marine Programme, which looks at the sustainability of seafood
  • The Freshwater Programme, which places emphasis on internationally traded water-intensive crops such as sugar
  • The Biodiversity and Wine Initiative (BWI), a partnership between WWF-SA, The Green Trust, numerous members in the conservation sector and the South African wine industry

Good progress has been made with all three initiatives. Some 800 officials have been trained for Marine Protected Areas, while a major breakthrough was achieved for the Freshwater Programme by the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the sugar industry. As far as the BWI is concerned, more than 70 wine farms could be involved in an attempt to bring a better balance between conservation and agriculture in the highly sensitive Cape Floral Region.

Cultural development

Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK) – this year the VenFin/Remgro bursary will be brought to the notice of young people in the Eden District Municipality as part of the Absa KKNK on Tour, after which applications will be invited and a winner be selected by an expert panel before the end of the year.

VenFin’s contribution to the festival in 2007 has also been used to co-sponsor the artistic programme which includes several dramas, amongst which were three translated into Afrikaans. One of the dramas, ’n Ander Tongval (Another Dialect), is based on the book with the same title by Antjie Krog. It has been compiled with a European tour in mind.

Field Band Foundation (FBF) – music is a catalyst for many of the solutions to the problems encountered by the country’s youth. This is how the FBF, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2007, approaches its role. With 30 bands at its disposal and a membership of 4 000, the Foundation harnesses music to improve the skills and career opportunities of young people who could perhaps have landed on the street.

An awareness of the dangers of HIV/Aids forms an integral part of the project. A recent survey on the prevalence of the disease amongst members between ages 16 and 26 has shown figures considerably lower than the national average. Regular exposure to international musicians and role models also reiterates the message to young people that there are a lot of reasons to protect themselves against HIV infection.

Last year, for the first time, the Foundation was able to send one of its members to university. This year two are receiving tertiary education, while many more are doing a bridging course which will enable them to follow suit. VenFin’s investment in the FBF can be seen as a contribution to help change the “risk profile” of our youth.

WAT – the Dictionary of the Afrikaans Language (WAT) is 80 years old and is still in the forefront of renewing the language and making it as supple and as user-friendly as possible. Testimony of the relevance of its efforts is the fact that during the past two years six large South African universities, amongst which are Unisa and the US, have purchased the internet version of the WAT as an electronic source.

Besides collecting and recording Afrikaans words in all their forms, the WAT also plays an important role in the training of lexicographers as well as in the educational use of dictionaries. During the past year five doctoral students from Gabon and four employees of the Oxford University Press attended courses in lexicography at the WAT. VenFin has agreed to contribute over a period of three years to the trust fund of the WAT.

Sport development

SA Golf Development Board (SAGDB) – in a year of many challenges, the SAGDB has completed its restructuring process and committed itself anew to spending its money where most needed: on the needs of the children in the national programmes. Structures were brought in accordance with this objective and administrative costs cut considerably to bring about a more performance-driven organisation. Besides its normal contribution, VenFin has made additional funds available for the restructuring process.

SAGDB has also adopted Project 312 to assist development managers in assessing their own performance as well as those of coaches. In addition, coaches taking part in the National Training Programme, completed their first year of study. The programme provides an opportunity to coaches to gain an accredited tertiarylevel education and a coaching qualification from the PGA, which could help raise the standard of the programmes they are involved in.

Western Cape Cricket Academy – VenFin is a joint sponsor of this Academy whose contribution to South African cricket is growing all the time. During the past year the names of current and former Academy players surfaced everywhere, not only in the SA World Cup squad and the SA “A” side to Australia, but also in the winning sides of the Lions, Titans and Cobras, respective winners of the Standard Bank Pro20, the SuperSport Competition and the MTN 45 Championships.

And it doesn’t stop there. Six women from the Western Province (WP), and an equal number from the Boland, all part of the Academy structure, represented their provinces at the national tournament for women in which 20 teams participated. The WP and the Boland reached the finals, which was won by WP. To cap it all during a very successful year, several of the Academy’s umpires gained access to international and national panels.

Community development

Ikamva Labantu – thanks to an administrative sponsorship by VenFin and Remgro, Ikamva, a community project with its roots firmly in the townships of the Western Cape, could, besides its involvement in early childhood development, family services and care for the visually impaired, continue its role as mentor for other community organisations.

During the past year, 120 more preschools joined Ikamva and 5 500 additional children between the ages of 0 and 6 were reached. Food was delivered to 110 indigent preschools, while 20 food gardens were successfully initiated for these schools. In the family services sector, children were cared for in 14 homes, while 15 “magnificent mothers” cared for 90 children from broken families.

A project launched by Ikamva in Philippi East at the request of VenFin and Remgro to determine how many children were without support, is progressing well. Initially the programme was planned to provide for 100 vulnerable children, but this number soon grew to 247. Support comprises food parcels, school uniforms, stationery and financial assistance. The aim is to create a standard model of intervention which could be replicated elsewhere in the country. This also includes a disengagement process as families become more self-sustainable.

u Mephi Child Care Programme – offers abused, unwanted and abandoned orphans a place of security. In 2006, 409 children were admitted to the programme. The ideal for u Mephi is that children should grow up within their biological families. If this is not possible, the children are cared for in homes or, in the case of babies, they are made available for adoption. In 2006, 142 babies were adopted locally and internationally.

Childhood should be the happiest time in a child’s life. The unfortunate reality is that many are physically, emotionally and sexually abused, are rejected and are denied the basic necessities for a normal life. Seven social workers assist these traumatised children to come to terms with their past in order to cope with the future.

St Joseph’s Home – runs a ward of 25 beds for the treatment of HIV/Aids paediatric patients. The ward is a stepdown facility for children discharged from tertiary hospitals but still too ill to be sent home. Nursing care and rehabilitation are provided, and parents and caregivers are instructed in administering antiretroviral drugs.

VenFin’s partial sponsorship of the ward helps to care for children who otherwise would have been sent home to suffer and even to die. Approximately 90% of the children admitted come from the Cape Town Metropole and most of them have only a single parent or grandparent.

Stellenbosch Community Development Programme (SCDP) – was founded in 2005 with the aim of:

  • feeding malnourished, underprivileged, poverty-stricken and orphaned children, many of whom are infected by HIV/Aids;
  • providing primary health care;
  • assisting unemployed parents to lay out vegetable gardens and to learn new skills; and
  • acting in partnership with other organisations such as Child Welfare and clinics.

The SCDP’s primary focus is on Kayamandi, where 568 children are fed daily and monthly food parcels provided to 60 families. An estimated 12% of the black township’s children do not attend school because their parents are too poor. Approximately 23% of Kayamandi’s residents live in dwellings with only one room, 45% of households still use paraffin for heating, while 25% of adults indicated that they have periodically gone hungry during the past year.

Health care

Wits/Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC) – this year the first private academic hospital in the country is celebrating its fifth anniversary and is still making good progress. The accreditation programme has been strengthened by confirmation of the status of medical practitioners working at the WDGMC.

The transplant unit of the WDGMC has become the prominent liver, kidney and pancreas transplant centre in the northern provinces of South Africa, while the oncology and intensive care units are going from strength to strength. Together with the ear, nose and throat unit and the surgery department, these have all developed into centres of excellence.

Organ Donor Foundation of SA – dedicates itself to the task of providing many people with a second chance to a normal life by making life-sustainable organs available to them. VenFin supports this effort by co-sponsoring four flights per year for the transport of these organs. The excellent service provided by Falconair’s staff in this regard is appreciated by all, by the doctors performing the transplants and by the recipients of the organs.