ENTERPRISE AND SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT

As a large manufacturing company in South Africa, we strive to have a meaningful impact on the sustainable growth of small businesses, on community development and job creation through our ESD programmes.

Over the past year, we invested R74 million (FY22: R87 million) in ESD programmes to support small and black-owned businesses. We remain committed to supporting suppliers with the necessary B-BBEE credentials. Seventy-seven per cent (FY22: 75%) of our local procurement of R12.5 billion was directed to suppliers with a Level 4 B-BBEE rating and better.

MUNICIPAL SUPPORT AND CAPACITY BUILDING

Many municipalities in South Africa are dysfunctional and unable to provide communities with adequate basic services such as electricity, water and sanitation or maintain roads and storm water drainage. The PG Bison operations in Mkhondo and Elundini, as well as the Safripol PP and HDPE operations in Metsimaholo, are situated in districts within dysfunctional municipalities. These areas present a risk to the long-term sustainability of our operations due to potential social unrest and service delivery-related disruptions. To mitigate this risk, we work in partnership with businesses, government institutions and surrounding community structures in these municipal districts to support infrastructure investment and maintenance through BRE and Small-Town Regeneration (‘STR’) programmes.

The BRE and STR programmes support municipalities with the provision of basic municipal services, maintenance of existing infrastructure, and investment in new bulk infrastructure to enable them to retain and attract businesses, create jobs and invest in community development.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Our group subscribes to the principles of human rights as expressed through the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Chapter 2), and in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Bill of Human Rights (consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and the principles concerning fundamental rights set out in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We follow the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and are a signatory to the UNGC. Where national law and international human rights standards differ, we follow the higher standard.

SED PROGRAMMES 

Education, nutrition and Community Development

The sani2c Community Development Trust, which provides children with access to education from pre-primary to tertiary level, funds school infrastructure and study materials. It also assists entrepreneurs through ESD activities.

The Infundo education programme in Ugie focuses on school infrastructure, learning materials and teacher support for both primary and high school learners. Infundo is working with PG Bison to integrate their crèches into the programme to ensure that the educational interventions across the child’s whole education journey from preschool to high school are aligned. Infundo has completed the needs analysis in Mkhondo, where PG Bison has several long-term and ad hoc nutrition and education (pre- and high school) support programmes. These interventions will be consolidated into a structured district model similar to the Ugie programme.

Safe-Hub, the biggest programme PG Bison supports, provides children in the Knysna area with nutrition and access to education from pre-primary to tertiary level. Safe-Hub has a dedicated youth development programme which focuses on engaging youth in sport, education and training pathways to work and leadership.

Judea Hope’s programmes focus on vulnerable children in rural areas, under-resourced regions, and informal settlements across the country. They currently run PG Bison’s feeding scheme at eight crèches in Ugie and provide early childhood development (‘ECD’) training for crèche teachers. As part of our enterprise development initiatives, they train community members in vegetable production in our vegetable tunnels, which supply the crèches with fresh produce. This initiative was launched in Mkhondo following a detailed needs analysis and collaboration with Infundo.

Unitrans has a partnership with FoodForward SA, who collect and repackage surplus food from manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers for distribution to ECD organisations, women’s empowerment groups and day-care centres, reaching 1 295 at-risk individuals, including 983 under the age of 19. Unitrans maintains the FoodForward SA vehicles on an ongoing basis.

In partnership with INANI Startwell Foundation, Safripol is supplying protein-rich cereal daily to feed children in ECD centres. The programme aims to address childhood stunting, one of the major causes being nutritional deficiencies. The cereals are supplied to the schools using rigid containers produced from Safripol’s HDPE resin. The containers are returned and refilled for subsequent use. The focus areas of the programme are the Durban South Basin and Zamdela in Sasolburg. The programme benefited 1 100 children in FY23 (FY22: 855).

The YES programme is a joint initiative between the private sector and government to assist South Africa’s youth to gain work experience through employment placement. In FY23, Safripol placed 375 YES youth in small businesses that are aligned with the circular economy.