Tsb Sugar's corporate social investment seeks to promote a people-centred, needs-driven and sustainable approach to the development of communities and individuals. It is our aim to ensure that our methods are in line with best practice.

The success of Tsb Sugar's longstanding CSI programme owes much to the stringent criteria governing selection of beneficiaries and the strict control of finances.

Vision
To be recognized as a company that improves the quality of life in the communities where we operate.

Objectives

• To enhance the socio-economic well being of society by creating opportunities
• To foster a spirit of co-operation and partnership with stakeholders
• To be recognized as a good corporate citizen and to enhance the image of Tsb Sugar
• To lead by example and establish best practices
• To encourage employee involvement in CSI projects

Guiding principles

1. Empowerment
Through its corporate social investment programme, Tsb Sugar empowers the needy by providing them with knowledge, skills and other key resources to assist them in growing out of poverty.

2. People
Tsb Sugar's CSI focuses on investments that improve people's well being and enhance their skills and capacity.

3. Sustainability
Tsb Sugar's CSI empowers people so that they can eventually assume full responsibility, control and ownership of projects.

Focus Areas

1. Education
As science and technology drive our core business, we focus our investment on empowering and developing people - individually and collectively - to realize their potential in this field. We undertake projects to create awareness and job opportunities as well as identify talent in the area of science and technology.

We provide resources to:

• Employees' children
• All Tsb Sugar farm schools
• Department of Education and other training institutions

2. Health
Tsb Sugar is committed to HIV/AIDS prevention through education and awareness, as well as care for those suffering from the condition. We support welfare and charity organisations.

3. Environment
We support specific conservation projects and assist in environmental education, awareness and capacity building.

4. Job Creation
In our mission to contribute to the economic development of our country, we favour projects which yield job opportunities or are aimed at creating employment.

5. Sport, arts and culture
Opportunities for uplifting the quality of life in communities are continually explored through the support of arts and culture.

Growing a sustainable future
Working closely with local communities and its development partners, TSB Sugar is making a difference to the lives of people in the Nkomazi area in Limpopo. Through its strategic CSI programme, focusing on education, HIV and Aids and sport, TSB Sugar is helping alleviate poverty and providing school-going children with hope for a brighter future. [55]

Sugar manufacturer TSB has a long history of social development, particularly in the Limpopo province, where its major operations exist. As the main employer in the Nkomazi area, TSB Sugar is inextricably linked to its surrounding community, the fate of one being tied up with the fate of the other. This is a company deeply rooted in its community and acutely aware of how important social development is to the future sustainability and success of the region.

Meeting diverse needs
Nkomazi is a largely rural area where the biggest challenges arise from unemployment, poverty and the high incidence of HIV infection and its attendant social problems. TSB, as the area’s major industry, has an important role to play in the upliftment of the surrounding communities, not only through the provision of jobs and the donation of funds, but also by using its profile as a key corporate player to attract attention and garner support for social issues.

Taking a holistic approach to the investment of its limited CSI resources, TSB has chosen to focus on areas that will allow it to address social development across a broad base of needs.  These areas are education, welfare and sport. Individually and collectively, the support provided in each area helps communities to overcome the daily obstacles they face.

Giving children the key
Education is the surest way to break the cycle of poverty but many schoolchildren in this region have to cope with insufficient school infrastructure, lack of properly trained educators and limited prospects of tertiary education when they leave school. The lack of properly educated school leavers contributes to increased unemployment and lack of skills in the Nkomazi area.

In addressing these education challenges, TSB has aligned itself with government and focused on improving maths and science ability in Nkomazi’s learners. These skills are vital not only to TSB’s core business but to the health of the regional economy. Partnering with Star Schools, the organisation is sponsoring the provision of supplementary maths, science and English classes for 150 learners in grades 10, 11 and 12 who show potential in these subjects.

 “Through its Star Schools sponsorship of 150 learners, TSB is making a vital contribution to the future success of the Nkomazi community, giving its children the chance to build a meaningful future for themselves.”
Louw Engelbrecht, Star Schools Co-ordinator

Fostering winning partnerships
The TSB Maths and Science Star Schools project attracted the attention of the provincial department of Public Transport, Roads and Works, which identified it as an ideal public-private partnership opportunity. Most beneficiary learners had to travel great distances in order to get to the Star School venue where they receive extra lessons and this resulted in a high level of absenteeism. They are now able to make use of transport sponsored by the Department, ensuring that they receive the full benefit of the programme.

In future, the Department hopes to recruit employees from the pool of talent that is being developed, and this further increases the employment prospects for the learners involved. This ‘spin-off’ partnership is typical of so many of the projects sponsored by TSB and speaks to the power of the TSB brand to raise awareness among other stakeholders of the key issues facing the area.

Alleviating suffering
Through its welfare interventions, TSB sponsors many projects that provide a support structure for families affected by and infected with HIV and Aids. One of the organisation’s key welfare projects is its sponsorship of the Thembalethu Centre. The Centre’s primary function is to provide home-based care, counselling and peer education to those affected by the disease. It also takes care of and provides food parcels to orphans, helping them to get registered for government grants and providing them with activities to keep them motivated and occupied.

As one of the Centre’s founding funders, TSB initiated and sponsored the home gardens project, which encourages households to start small-scale vegetable gardens to provide food security, and partnered with Trans African Concessions (TRAC) in erecting tunnels for hydroponic farming. Its annual support grant ensures that the important work being carried out at the centre has a sustainable future. We continue to support the community newspaper which is an initiative by the Youth in Action, a project of Thembalethu home based care in schoemasdal. This initiative aims to communicate issues of HIV/AIDS and other, and has been a success in reaching out young people within the region.

Hope through sport
With so many obstacles to overcome, sport - particularly soccer - provides a welcome recreational relief for the community members of the Nkomazi area. Soccer has always been popular but TSB was the first organisation to introduce a formal tournament, the Selati Super Cup. This tournament has the support of the local Nkomazi Football Association as well as SAFA Lowveld. Sixty soccer teams from all over the area compete for cash prizes that enable them to develop their teams. The 2006 winning team, Home killers, pocketed R20 000 was also recently treated to a trip to Pretoria Loftus Stadium to watch Kaizer Chiefs lifting the Vodacom trophy by beating Manchester United 5-4 on penalty shootout in July 22, 2006. Trans African concession (TRAC) came in as a joint sponsor of the tournament.
In the 2009 edition of the tournament a total of 180 soccer teams took part (154 men and 26 women) took part in the tournament and the winners, Shongwe Chiefs took home R55 000, and runners up, Young Tigers Ltd won R30 000.

By giving players something to compete for, the tournament has revitalised league soccer in the region, raising the standard of play. There is also the opportunity for teams to showcase their talent and the possibility that talent scouts may recruit star players to the local premiership. The tournament provides both players and spectators something positive to focus their attention on. Nkomazi Mayor Mr.John Mavuso has been a proud supporter of the tournament and appreciated Tsb sugar for its involvement.

Towards best-practice CSI
Now in the second stage of its three-phase CSI growth strategy, TSB increased its CSI budget by 25% in the period 2005 – 2006, allowing it to increase the impact it has on the Nkomazi community. In future, the company aims to adopt both a proactive and reactive approach to project identification and investment, while formula-driven budgets that relate directly to a percentage of company profits will make even more funds available. In a continuous drive towards best practice in corporate governance, the company also aims to measure its impact with both internal and external assessment. 

Sharing the lessons
• A collaborative, non-paternalistic approach to corporate social investment fosters buy-in and support from all community stakeholders.
• Partnerships are vital to the sustainability of projects as one donor alone cannot offer all the resources and expertise required to solve complex social problems.
• A powerful brand can raise awareness of project needs by attracting the attention of other corporates, NGOs and government departments.

Kenneth Phiri
Community Liaison Officer
TSB Sugar
tel: 013 - 791 1242
email: PhiriK@tsb.co.za
www.tsb.co.za