Children learn how to use computers near Goedehoop colliery, South Africa
Every year, we invest a percentage of our profit in social projects and spend time actively working with our communities. Our primary goals are to help alleviate poverty, promote health, improve education and foster community development.
Corporate social investment is guided by our Socio-Economic Assessment Toolbox process and focuses on areas where we believe we will maximise benefits both to society and our business.
In 2008, Anglo American South Africa was rated by 102 private sector corporate social investment practitioners as the company that makes the most effective contribution to development in South Africa. It also ranked first when 100 non-governmental organisations participated in a survey countrywide.
The Anglo American Chairman’s Fund
The Anglo American Chairman’s Fund is one of the dedicated instruments through which Anglo American channels its corporate social investment (CSI) spend, and was named the top CSI grant-maker in South Africa for eight consecutive years.
This rating, released by Cape Town-based analytical, Trialogue, was published in its annual CSI Handbook and is based on a perceptions rating of 100 leaders of South African non-profit organisations and a similar number of South African company representatives.
As the oldest professionally managed CSI programme in the country, the fund dates back to the 1950s and, over the years, has developed a reputation for being one of the most inclusive funders in the country and a partner of choice in development. All of our business units contribute to the Chairman's Fund, resulting in an investment of just under R730 million between 1999 and 2010.
These range from small grassroots initiatives to major capital building projects and large-scale service delivery programmes in partnership with provincial and national authorities. Focus areas include HIV/AIDS, healthcare and welfare as well as education and entrepreneurial development.
“We believe that through sustained intervention, corporate South Africa is able to create an environment in which disadvantaged people are able to assume greater control of their lives. Our views, policies and approaches to social development have been guided through a long history of working in partnership with South Africa and the various communities in which we operate. We believe in recognising the champions that guide the causes and initiatives that we support to make a positive and sustainable contribution in terms of the social well-being of people, communities and of our country.”
- Norman Mbazima, Anglo American Chairman’s Fund Chairperson
Education
Almost half of the fund’s social investment goes to initiatives that improve the standard of education in South Africa. These focus on maths and science, literacy, the development of teachers and infrastructural development. Its flagship project is the Rural Schools Programme whichprovides infrastructure, mainly in the form of classrooms, laboratories, ablution blocks and libraries for schools in rural areas. Between 2003 and 2008, the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund contributed R54 million to this sector.
Health
One of the fund’s major focus areas is HIV/AIDS, and it takes a holistic approach in dealing with the impacts of the pandemic. It assists organisations that provide home-based care to terminally ill patients, builds public health facilities and sponsors youth awareness programmes. However, its activities are not restricted to this disease. In a more recent project, the fund approved a grant of R1 million to help cholera relief operations run by the South African Red Cross in Zimbabwe and the Limpopo province. It also invested R1.75 million in the Siloah Hospital Development Trust, which went towards building a laundry and new ablution block in a tuberculosis ward.
Sustainable community development
The fund assists organisations that care for the elderly, the disabled and children, and supports initiatives in the entrepreneurial development and policy sectors. One of its recent projects involves its support of the African Children’s Community Education and Feeding Scheme which feeds more than 1,000 families a month and 21,000 orphans and vulnerable children each day.
Find out more about the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund