Fundraising and Functions

Investec CEO Hendrik du Toit, Archbishop Ndungane and guest speaker Mathews Phosa at the Investec briefing.

Investec Business Breakfast

Shortly before our AGM in August 2008, we held a ‘briefing breakfast’ for leaders in the Cape Town business community. This was generously sponsored by Investec and I would like to thank CEO Hendrik du Toit and his highly efficient team for a very successful event. Mathews Phosa gave a supportive keynote address and offered a personal donation of R100,000 for which we are most appreciative. HSRP Consultant Dr Charles Villa-Vicencio efficiently briefed those present on the goals, needs and progress of the HSRP, and we made contact with many interested business people. Investec has been enormously supportive of the HSRP and has also offered to manage the ZK Matthews Educational Trust Fund – more on that later.

First Rand Bank Business Breakfast

In October another breakfast was held for the business community in Johannesburg. Equally successful, this was sponsored by First Rand Bank and we are grateful to Sizwe Nxasana, Adrian Arnott and their team for so ably organising and facilitating this event. Jay Naidoo agreed to be our keynote speaker and gave an extremely interesting and energising address. Valuable contacts were made within the Gauteng business sector.

Alumni Dinner

In February 2009, we held our Inaugural Alumni Dinner at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. All alumni of historic schools across South Africa were invited and were asked to donate, as an ‘entrance fee’, two to three books to be distributed to the libraries of the historic schools. Once again a generous sponsor – in the form of Nedbank – covered the costs of this event, helped by a donation from Sasol Limited. Thank you to Nedbank and Sasol and their organisations for their support.

Dr Hlophe Bam addresses guests at the Alumni Dinner.

We were very fortunate to have three prominent leaders (and alumnae) address the gathering, namely Dr Hlophe Bam, Dr Mamphela Ramphele and former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. We were reminded anew of the importance of education in forming future leaders of our country and of the necessity of alumni involvement – something that, in my opinion, can never be stressed enough.

An estimated 800 to 900 guests were present, including alumni from about 70 South African schools and former President and Mrs Mbeki. The Bala Brothers made beautiful music for us pro bono (and made a donation) which helped to make the evening a resounding success. Bongiwe Njobe and Gloria Serobe worked extremely hard to encourage pledges and donations from those present and approximately R350,000 was raised for various schools.

The Bala Brothers, who provided entertainment at the Inaugural Alumni Dinner, greet former President Thabo Mbeki and his wife Zanele.

One of my favourite donations came from an alumnus who was distressed, when he drove past his alma mater, to see that the grass outside was tall enough to hide the children going to school. He therefore pledged a lawnmower for that particular institution!

Not all alumni remembered their book donations, but some bought from the Exclusive Books stand on the night and a few hundred new and second-hand books were distributed to some of the neediest historic schools for inclusion in their libraries.

General Fundraising

There is no doubt that we will continue to look to government to supplement any funding we are able to raise from civil society. As a ‘special purpose vehicle’ of government to provide excellence in education, the Department of Arts and Culture has provided initial funding for administration of the HSRP for three years (until end March 2011), and we have also received a great deal of moral and advisory support from the Departments of Education and Science and Technology. More talks are being held with government on various funding possibilities. We have already seen some success in our fundraising efforts. As I have already mentioned, Investec, First Rand Bank, Nedbank and Sasol have enabled us to hold various functions to promote the HSRP, and many alumni have pledged generous amounts to their old schools or to the Project itself. Since receiving the SA Reserve Bank donation of R6 million at the end of the 2007 financial year, we have received R100 000 from the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, R1 million over five years from the Ackerman Family Trust for teacher enrichment, subsidies and bursaries, and a donation from the Methodist Church of Southern Africa.