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SA: Jeff Radebe: Address by Minister Minister in the Presidency for Planning Monitoring and Evaluation at the 2015 African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) Broad-Based Economic Empowerment (BBEE) Trust and Motsepe Foundation Meeting, Sandton Convention Centre (24/1

Jeff Radebe
Jeff Radebe

25th November 2015

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Programme Director,
The Motsepe Family,
The Trustees of the Trust,
Members of the Foundation,
Clergy and Traditional Leaders,
Donors and Grant Makers,
Representatives of Civil Society,
Captains of industry,
Ladies and gentleman.

I am honoured to be invited by the African Rainbow Minerals BBEE Trust and the Motsepe Foundation on this occasion.

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In the last week, three issues which have dominated the national discourse have a direct relevance to the issue of funds and funding in South Africa. Firstly, a Member of Parliament has threatened to mobilise the alumni of the University of Stellenbosch to reconsider their support for the university as a consequence of its change of language policy.

Secondly, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) received an R8.8m cash endowment for researching the social determinants of health inequality. This endowment comes from the alumnus member Prof Aubrey Sheiham and his wife Dr Helena Sheiham. The couple also pledged to contribute additional funds through their will to continue research that aimed to allow better understanding of the link between political forces and social conditions that allowed inequality to increase.

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Thirdly, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, asserting itself as Chapter 9 institution, is asking some faith-based leaders to reveal the state of their finances and to probe the “commercialisation of religion. While the Commission is getting some cooperation, the dominating discourse is about the refusal of other faith-based leaders to cooperate with it. They consider the Commission as interfering and being intrusive into their affairs.

The second of these issues by the Sheiham family is driven by genuine altruism. The first, that is of the Member of Parliament and the Stellenbosch language policy, and the third of the religious leaders and the Commission for religion and language rights, are driven by political and selfish motives. I think the three examples that I have made are trying to show how in the world of funding, donation, endowment, corporate social responsibility and philanthropy forces at play can determine the destiny of our nation towards achieving its developmental goals. These examples are relevant to appreciate how this meeting should choose where it stands.

I have followed the road shows of the Motsepe Trust and having appreciated how the Trust has dispensed its kindness to the South African people as a whole. I am also painfully aware that the issue of philanthropy as exemplified by the Motsepe Foundation is not wide-spread among South Africans. We do applaud the role that is played by all those who give to others even when they themselves have little to give, reflecting our uBuntu tradition. The hearts of South Africans and the willingness to assist the less fortunate is at the heart of our humanness as South Africans.

The work of the foundation has attracted a lot of attention throughout the fabric of South African society from traditional leaders to church organisations, to sports, to people living with disability in a manner that makes the Motsepes to be amongst the most appreciated personalities in the country and the world. The Motsepe Foundation has awarded bursaries covering tuition, books, accommodation and allowances to 735 students over the last two years from the 26 Motsepe Foundation Development Forums that have been established in the nine provinces throughout South Africa. Of these, the Motsepe Foundation awarded bursaries to 10 students from Khayelitsha in 2014 and an additional 10 students from the same area in 2015. These bursaries have been awarded to students studying mainly in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Business studies.

The amount spent on the Khayelitsha students in 2014 is approximately R600,000, and will exceed R1.3 million in 2015. The total commitment to these students over a period of four to five years is approximately R7.1 million.

The African Rainbow Minerals BBEE Trust has distributed approximately R130-million to its beneficiaries. These funds have contributed significantly to various Education, Women, Youth, Water, Health, Farming and Rural Upliftment projects throughout South Africa. The beneficiaries of the ARM BBEE Trust include rural communities, women, youth, religious and worker organisations. Plans and initiatives for collaboration and partnerships to develop and uplift communities are in place.

With the intention of giving traditional leaders the respect they deserve in our society, the Foundation held a workshop with traditional leaders under the theme: “Partnering with our Traditional Leaders and Communities for Economic and Financial Stability and Self Reliance”. The workshop resolved that expertise will be provided throughout the country and assigned to help traditional leaders in identifying economic resources and areas that would be focused on sustainability and self-reliance. Experts from banking, farming, and other areas will be assigned to meet with the Kings and Leaders and to work with them to achieve this. To further expand interaction with traditional leaders, the rural development has received a boost of 50 million rand from the Motsepe foundation. The initiative intends to enhance partnerships between government, traditional leaders and rural communities to further development in rural communities.

The first family in the continent to join the Giving Pledge that was started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the Motsepe family joins the global efforts of research and efforts to find a cure to HIV and cancer research. The Pledge was accompanied by the Motsepe family’s resolve to make available over 2.4 billion dollars to charitable causes, including wildlife conservation and environment protection.

In June, this year, the Foundation together with the Shwab Foundation hosted a Social Entrepreneurship Conference in Cape Town. While entrepreneurship is ageless, there is a need for African countries to encourage and support youth social entrepreneurship development because Africa's population is youthful. Africa has more under 20 population than anywhere else in the world and by 2050 Africa's population will reach 2 billion people. For the next three to four decades, the imbalance will continue to be so, and the current political leadership needs to start planning now for this situation. Both our country's National Development Plan and The African Agenda 2063 should be alive to this reality in order to correctly harness this demographic dividend.
Shelagh Gastrow, of Philanthropy South Africa, has appreciated the scope of the Motsepe's contribution as very impressive. She also stated "When business people institutionalise their philanthropy by setting up a foundation, it makes it easier to direct organisations to the foundation, which has to evaluate each case objectively."

When I spoke at the World Economic Forum on the 2nd of June this year, I stated that we as Government alone cannot succeed in addressing the various challenges that face our societies. Indeed, Governments around the world are rethinking their mandates and are trying to invent the best ways to meet social needs. Economic competitiveness, national security and social injustices are converging in ways that make solving the problems associated with poverty the most urgent problem of our times. The reality is that a government which seeks to exclude willing and able private sector partners to assist it is placing itself in a precarious position of failing in its mandate.

Due to the inequalities between Black and White there is no sufficient mass from the Black entrepreneurs and industrialists to join the few in the class of capital philanthropist to alleviate the situation of poverty in our country. It is, therefore, important that we should appreciate the efforts of the Trust and Foundation to put their shoulders to the wheel in assisting the country to achieve its objectives of making a better life for all.

There are many sources of funds which lie dormant and in reserve which also need to be unlocked to assist the less fortunate in our society. There is a need for State organs that disburse funds to various people to follow the example of the Road Accident Fund which now has a direct payment system to beneficiaries. I am aware that this approach is not favourable to some who work in the area of finances, but it is necessary in order to save those to whom these funds are entrusted from the temptation of dipping their fingers into these trust funds.

One of the observations which was made by the National Development Agency survey was that NPO Directorate is not timeously responsive, often loses documents and delays are encountered in obtaining responses from designated officials. It was also reported that there are inconsistent responses between officials at the provincial level and the national level. As Government, we are hard at work to improve the conduct of our civil servants so that they become responsive to the needs of our people under the guidance of the Batho Phele principles.

We have embarked on improving the capacity of the State as identified by the National Development Plan in such a manner that those civil servants who are not compliant face the full sanction. We are arming ourselves as Government to be more rigorous in our application of consequence management for members of the civil service who are not responsive to the needs of our people. The School of Government under the Department of Public Service and Administration is sharpening our civil servants towards internationally-based standards of serving the public. The intention is to keep our civil servant up to speed with the latest trends in the civil service.

One of the challenges facing the NPOs is about choosing dedicated Board members. The National Development Agency Survey also reveals that many Board members are enthusiastic initially when appointed. However, over time, they do not retain interest once they realise that their functions are voluntary and without remuneration. Boards have policy-making functions and if they do not meet regularly or make timeous decisions they render the organisation impotent or dysfunctional.

These boards do not support the CEOs/Managers and often there is no clear demarcation of roles between the Board and Management, leading to confusion and conflict. We believe that while there are regulations and legislation in place, there is a need from the Civil Society itself to find each other in relation to how they deal with their Boards and Executive. While the Board pool is shrinking in South Africa and there are many Board members who serve in many Boards, there are also many who are willing to assist Non Profit Organisations gratis and legal professionals and chartered accountants who are willing to assist pro bono.

Many complaints were recorded that filing of documents was tedious, lengthy and not user-friendly. We should also accept that some Non-Profit Organisations do not have the capacity required for accountability. It would be helpful in my view if donor organisations should also take the recipients through training about accounting before grants and donations are made. I am not for a single moment advocating for the recipient organisations to have a laissez-faire attitude on the donations that they receive. Donations should be used for the purposes they were donated for. Any deviations towards self-enrichment send a bad name for all recipient organisations and makes donor organisations to be reluctant to donate further.

The South African Revenue Service requirements are also complex and often require very strict reporting conditions. Where SARS assists with the completion of documents, this is very time-consuming and requires hours of attendance. As a tax collection agency, the South African revenue Service has attracted a lot of appreciation and commendations for its work. It is an accessible and a friendly service. I would, therefore, urge the Non-Profit Organisations to approach the relevant tax authorities to address whatever issues they have

Due to late payments by donors, including corporates, state agencies and government departments, many civil society organisations are experiencing cash flow problems. We have observed that indeed many small organisations and businesses fold up because of delays in payments by government departments and state-owned companies. The President has assigned a new function to the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation to deal with this issue of delays in payments. We would, therefore, appeal to organisations that have not been paid after duly submitting the required documentation to approach this Department to facilitate quick and timeous payment.

Several Civil Society Organisations complained that there were various monitoring and evaluation requirements between Department of Social Development, state agencies like the Lotto and the NDA and corporate donors. They desired a universal system which would allow them to monitor systematically and report universally to all the stakeholders. This would also assist in providing annual reports as part of their accountability requirements. A further complaint made by respondents was that practical monitoring and evaluation tools are not accurately communicated at the start of a project to the recipient organisation. This often leads to confusion, anger and frustration and a perceived non-realisation of the project objectives.

It was suggested that the monitoring and evaluation capacity should be developed to assist the performance of the Non-profit Organisation’s and all Civil Society Organisations. As Government, we are continuously improving in this areas and we call on all South Africans to adopt the monitoring and evaluation as a growing management tool. We are ready to cooperate and assist the sector through the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation so that we as government civil society and business can sing from the same hymnbook as we cooperatively build our country for a better life for all.

The is a need for a better streamlining of legislation so that the Non-Profit Organisation Act, the Companies Act, the Income Tax Act, the Public Finance management Act, (PFMA) are easy to organisations which work in the sector. Every effort should be made to ensure that these pieces of legislation do not prejudice the non-profit organisations with the burden of multiple reporting and debilitating accountability. While there is a need for reporting and accountability, the core function of civil society organisations should not be disturbed by the over-emphasis on reporting. There is also an attendant need for us as Government to strengthen our regulation and oversight over funds that are donated for the benefit of the public. There are numerous instances where our people are being duped by fly-by-night non-profit organisations which are anything but. These fly-by-night organisations pretend to be working for the benefit of their communities when they are in fact set up to benefit certain individuals.

I am particularly excited that the African Rainbow Minerals has stepped to the plate to set up a trust in order to assist South Africans as a whole. I think this should be an example to the many companies the sector who are sitting with provident funds in their accounts under the pretext that they cannot locate the intended beneficiaries. My observation in the South African context is that when citizens owe money to financial institutions, it is easier to trace them, but when they are owed money, there is no urgency from the part of institutions to trace them. One of the issues we are dealing with in the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Distressed Mining which I have been tasked by the President to lead pertains to the non-distribution of provident funds to qualifying beneficiaries, most of whom are in the rural areas.

I am also aware that even though they are in need of support, some Non-Profit Organisations go without funding because of conditionalities that are placed on them by donors and Grant- makers. At the global level, our country is working hard to convince the global finance institutions to transform themselves in a manner that reflect the realities of the global community. Amongst some of the practices, we have identified is the manner in which conditionalities that are placed by these organisations on developing countries are cumbersome. We would also like that at the national level these conditionalities should not be applied in such a manner that the sustainability and the resilience of NPOs are compromised.

The issue of trusts has never been fully used by many of our people as an additional financial instrument. The many intestate estates that have not been distributed in many Masters Courts are a consequence of the failure by many Black South Africans to put their moneys in trust. There is a need to educate our people about the need to register their wills while they are still alive. The family contestations and the souring of relations among the surviving beneficiaries are a consequence of our collective failure as South Africans to write our wills. Now freely available online, citizens can draft their own wills without reference to professionals in the field.

Admitting that their philanthropy needs to assist the needy communities and organisations, caution should also be thrown to the donor organisations. Often times, many organisations donate only as a tick in the box. Some big industries embark on corporate social responsibility not so much to assist but to be compliant. There is thus a need for these organisations to adequately assess the projects they want to embark upon. In other words there is a need to research the actual needs of their communities to donate to.

I have no doubt that the discussions today will be lively and constructive. I wish you God speed as you debate amongst yourself how to distribute the donor cake over the many applications that the Trust and the Foundation receive annually. You have started a journey that has assisted any communities deal with their pressures of poverty and need. It is a journey worthwhile taking, and we as government will support and appreciate all the efforts that you make in assisting to respond to the pressing needs of South Africans.

I wish you well in your deliberations.

I thank You.

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