SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

We work with several organisations to enhance our community development activities. Our focus is on childhood nutrition, education and enterprise development, with the objective of reducing poverty and unemployment. Importantly, some of our manufacturing businesses operate in communities that are negatively affected by unemployment, poverty, poor service delivery and related socioeconomic issues. As many of our employees live in these communities, we are deeply committed to ensuring that they are stable and sustainable. Our commitment goes beyond financial investment. We endeavour to build relationships with our communities that are mutually beneficial, respectful and lasting through an approach of transparency, social justice, integrity and accountability. We have formal structures to manage engagement with our communities in an open and collaborative way.

Over the course of the year, our spending on social development projects amounted to R25 million (1% of profit after tax), an increase of 79% on FY21.

All of our divisions are involved in social and economic development projects, with the most material ones summarised below.

Social development expenditure

Note: Percentages have been rounded

Community development and outreach

KAP sani2c

KAP has partnered with the sani2c initiative since its inception in 2004. sani2c is a three-day mountain bike event that attracts more than 2 000 riders per event and provides permanent and temporary employment for the local community. Sixteen local schools are recipients of the funds raised through entries to the race and sponsorships.

The sani2c Community Development Trust, in partnership with the Southern Lodestar Foundation’s Breakfast Programme, feeds almost 2 000 school children daily along the sani2c route.

PG Bison Safe-Hub

The Safe-Hub programme is an award-winning, world-class, evidence-based youth development programme that uses sport and education to intervene in the long-term trajectory of the participants’ lives, creating hope and opportunity through training, education and pathways to work and leadership.

Safe-Hub, which is based on a social franchise model, was founded in Khayelitsha in Cape Town in 2008. It has since developed a national presence with Safe-Hub programmes operating in Gugulethu, Diepsloot, Tembisa, Alexandra, Soweto and Knysna.

The Knysna Safe-Hub aims to reach more than 1 500 young people from local communities every year, offering football and educational sessions twice weekly. 

The Safe-Hub programme has proved to assist in reducing crime, improving education and offering viable pathways to employment. The facility in Knysna employs 20 people from the local community every year, including 13 young people, who are placed in NQF level 4 learnerships and exit the programme into local employment. Through its contributions, PG Bison enjoys naming rights of the facility, the PG Bison Knysna Safe-Hub.

PG Bison – annual soccer tournament

PG Bison hosted its annual community knockout soccer tournaments in eMkhondo (inaugural) in May 2022 and in Ugie in April 2022. We provided food for more than
6 000 children and community members during these events.

Education

PG Bison – Ugie CREATE

Since 2009, PG Bison has partnered with Infundo to create and implement the Ugie CREATE Initiative education and community development project. Infundo is an independent Level 2 B-BBEE social enterprise consultancy specialising in educational development throughout the country, including the rural areas of Ugie and Maclear in the Eastern Cape, where PG Bison operates. The Ugie CREATE Initiative works directly with seven schools in the district, namely the ET Thabane Public School, Ugie High School, Umthawelanga Senior Secondary School, Jamangile, Maclear High, Maclear Methodist School and the Sibabale Senior Secondary School. Since the inception of the project, pass rates have improved significantly.

In the southern Cape, PG Bison works with the Knysna Educational Trust to manage two crèches in Brackenhill and Ruigtevlei. The division supplied and maintains the classrooms at these facilities and provides funding for three educators.

Nutrition

Unitrans – FoodForward SA

In communities affected by poverty, nutritional support for vulnerable people, including young children and learners, is an invaluable social contribution. Unitrans South Africa therefore encourages our employees to volunteer one working day per month to repackage food for FoodForward SA.

This NPO collects surplus food from manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, and repackages it for distribution to early childhood development (‘ECD’) organisations, women’s empowerment groups and day-care centres, reaching nearly 500 000 at-risk individuals. Unitrans maintains the truck we donated to FoodForward SA on an ongoing basis, and donated an amount towards the replacement of a 14-tonne refrigerated vehicle. In addition, the division provides logistics assistance for the distribution of food parcels as part of the Feed the Nation campaign, as well as funding for meals at the Steinthal Children’s Home in Tulbagh and Emmanuel Educare, which provides nutritional support for children in crèches.

PG Bison – Brackenhill and Ugie school feeding schemes

PG Bison in the southern Cape supports the local Brackenhill community, which has a feeding scheme for residents in need. The division has provided the scheme with gas stoves and supplies it with gas and ingredients that enable them to feed more than 60 children a day. PG Bison has also partnered with an NPO called Judea Hope, as well as farmers and businesses to support a feeding scheme in the Ugie area. The scheme supports seven local crèches by distributing meals to more than 300 preschool children every day and distributing food parcels to the elderly in the community.

The five vegetable tunnels PG Bison established at ECD centres in the area produce vegetables that are used to supplement the food parcels. The tunnels have also created employment for the local community, and any excess vegetables are sold to generate income for the schools.

PG Bison – Ugie socio-agricultural vegetable project

The Ugie Socio-Agricultural Vegetable Project, established in 2013, is another successful collaboration between PG Bison and the local community. Several years ago, PG Bison and the local community identified the need to establish a reliable source of fresh vegetables. The division provided members of the community with access to nine hectares of land, implements, and the infrastructure necessary to grow vegetables for sale in the area. Seedlings are grown annually in PG Bison’s nursery and, together with fertiliser, are supplied to two projects that have been established as sustainable cooperatives which employ 16 people.

ENTERPRISE AND SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT

As one of the larger manufacturing companies in South Africa, we can have a meaningful impact on the sustainable growth of small businesses through our ESD programmes. Over the past year, we have invested R87 million (FY21: R41 million) in ESD programmes to support small and black-owned businesses. We remain committed to support suppliers with the necessary B-BBEE credentials. Over the past year, more than 75% of our local procurement was directed to suppliers with Level 4 and better. 

BUSINESS-ADOPTS-A-MUNICIPALITY (‘BAAM’) AND BUSINESS RETENTION AND EXPANSION (‘BRE’)

In 2011, PG Bison partnered with the Elundini local and Joe Gqabi district municipalities under the BAAM programme and implemented various socioeconomic development initiatives, which included disaster management, revitalisation of the small towns Maclear and Ugie, and setting up of a furniture factory. This successful partnership has directly benefited the communities, and indirectly benefited PG Bison’s Ugie operations. In light of this successful partnership, we are involved in various Small-Town Regeneration (‘STR’) programmes with various municipalities in the areas in which we operate and have also adopted the broader BRE framework.

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