Corporate Social Investment

Key criteria for group projects are that they impact positively on the upliftment of the historically disadvantaged, with an emphasis on the youth

OVERVIEW

Primedia is involved in a number of group CSI projects, which are overseen by the Primedia Foundation. The key criteria for these group projects are that they impact positively on the upliftment of the historically disadvantaged, with an emphasis on the youth, and that they are visible, measurable and ultimately self-sustainable.

Some of these projects are funded by unsold inventory, and movie and console gaming products, which the Primedia Foundation and individual group companies convert into cash, relevant products or services. The company also enters into partnerships with outside parties in joint ventures when necessary.

A full report of all CSI projects, both those of the group and of individual Primedia companies, can be found in the Primedia Foundation: Corporate Social Investment Report 2006.

GROUP PROJECTS

The Primedia Foundation oversees five group projects, listed below.

Primedia Skills Development

Primedia Skills Development is a company that was established as a community development project through seed funding by Primedia Limited. It has Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) status, and operates from the Alexandra Motswedi Centre in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg. The Foundation is looking into developing a similar centre in Cape Town. The project was established to assist young, unemployed adults to enter the mainstream of society, through the provision of vocational training, job placement and career guidance services in building and construction.

Since its establishment, Primedia Skills Development has trained in excess of 1 100 people, the majority of whom have been drawn from Alexandra, in skills such as bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing, painting and decorating, plastering, tiling and paving. Trainees are given on the job experience and mentoring, as well as the opportunity to complete a computer literacy course, funded by the Ackerman Pick ‘n Pay Foundation.

Aside from partnering with a number of organisations to provide vocational training services, Primedia Skills Development will shortly be entering into a partnership with Cape Town based Men on the Side of the Road (MSR), a non-profit organisation which gives basic skills training to unemployed men standing at the side of the road looking for work. The partnership will see MSR providing training services in the northern Johannesburg area.

The company has again been recognised by the Impumelelo Innovations Awards Trust, receiving the Silver Award in recognition of its contribution to poverty reduction and community development in South Africa.

The Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies

In August 2005, the Primedia Foundation received a proposal from UNISA to establish a Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

The group agreed to fund the Chair, which is the first of its kind in Africa, with a grant of R5 million over five years.

After advertising extensively in South Africa and internationally, UNISA appointed Professor Abebe Zegeye as Chairman to head the department, and Dr AM Court as Senior Research Fellow.

Primedia Bursary Programmes

The Primedia Foundation awards bursaries to deserving candidates studying at recognised universities with which it has signed agreements. In the period under review, the Foundation significantly increased the number of bursaries awarded, from 15 in the previous year to 43.

Universities now taking part in the programme include the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Free State, the University of South Africa (UNISA), the University of Limpopo and the University of Fort Hare.

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the University of the Western Cape have confirmed they will be going ahead with Primedia bursary schemes. Negotiations are in progress with a number of other universities that have shown interest in joining the programme.

The Primedia Foundation also awards bursaries to a number of lower paid employees’ children, to study at recognised tertiary institutions. Following an awareness campaign within the group, the Group Staff Bursary Programme received better response this year, and three additional staff bursaries were awarded.

The Sangoni Project

The additions being funded by the Primedia Foundation at Sangoni senior secondary school in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape have reached completion. This project came into being after former President Nelson Mandela invited Primedia to help build or renovate a school in the area.

The Primedia Foundation’s commitment of R3 million to this project enabled the erection of six new classrooms, computer and science laboratories, and an administration block with a staffroom, reception, strongroom and storeroom.

The much improved school was handed over to the Department of Education at the end of August 2006, with the formal opening scheduled for the end of November 2006.

The Tipa Project

Tipa (Techno-agricultural Innovation for Poverty Alleviation) is a drip irrigation agricultural project established by the Israeli Embassy, together with Ikamva Labantu and the JD Group. The Primedia Foundation has introduced the concept into three projects in which it is actively involved.

The Phelang School takes care of the special educational needs of disadvantaged children, all with some degree of mental handicap. To this end it has planted a small vegetable garden. The Tipa programme will enhance yield, and provide proper training for the parents, staff and learners who will care for the garden.

The land secured for the Foundation’s agricultural project in Olifantsvlei, south of Johannesburg, has been developed and the drip irrigation piping has been laid out. The first crop is expected this summer.

The Diepsloot project has been set up on a five-hectare strip of land close to the Diepsloot informal settlement just north of Johannesburg. This land, which makes up the first phase of the project, has been prepared. An adjacent strip has been earmarked for the second phase of the project.

COMPANY PROJECTS

In addition to the many activities of the Primedia Foundation, individual companies within the Primedia group also set up and manage their own CSI programmes.

Each year, Primedia gives recognition to those group companies that have gone the extra mile in giving back to their community and society. Primedia’s CSI Award emphasises the importance of corporate social investment within the group, and recognises the company that has made the greatest contribution to the communities within which it operates.

Primedia Broadcasting, Ster-Kinekor and Megapro Marketing were nominated for the award this year. For the significant contributions made by its four radio stations, Primedia Broadcasting took home the trophy.

Cinemark

Cinemark screened a number of commercials promoting worthy causes, donating over R5,3 million worth of screen time to Let’s Play, Nkosi’s Haven, the SA Guide-dogs Association, Bandana Day, Operation Hunger and LoveLife, amongst others.

Together with SuperSport, Cinemark has also been instrumental in the creation of the Let’s Play initiative, a project aimed at encouraging participation in sport or other physical activity amongst the youth. Cinemark has assisted the initiative by promoting it onscreen, to the value of over R4,7 million in the period under review.

Cinemark also facilitated donations from its clients to the Cotlands Baby Sanctuary, supported Smile Education’s play days for disadvantaged and disabled children, and took part in Bandana Day to help raise money for leukemia patients. Involvement in HIV/Aids relief included handing out candles with a World Aids Day message, and collecting non-perishable foodstuffs for the Selby Park Hospital, an Aids relief organisation, for distribution over the festive season.

Comutanet

Comutanet continues to make a sizable contribution to the Putco Foundation, which supports a number of projects, bursaries and charities. Comutanet channels a percentage of the revenue it receives from bus advertising to the Foundation – more than R800 000 was donated this fiscal.

By selling hotdogs to advertising and media agencies on ‘Hotdog Day’, an annual event given a new spin each year, Comutanet raised R10 000 for the SA Guide-dogs Association.

Comutanet once again sponsored soccer kit for the Soweto Young Stars, and assisted in the distribution of blankets and foodstuffs to underprivileged communities.

iafrica.com

This Internet portal hosted, managed and updated websites for the Nkosi Johnson Aids Foundation, the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, the Carel du Toit Centre for deaf children, Township Patterns, the Advertising Benevolent Fund, and the Sizanani Home. It also ran advertising campaigns valued at over R71 000 for EcoAccess, which aims to include disabled people into society and promote their access to South Africa’s natural heritage, and for Kids Haven, a shelter for street children in Benoni.

Kaizer Chiefs

With over 12 million supporters who are key to the club’s success, Kaizer Chiefs is very community-oriented, with a strong focus on corporate social investment. Initiatives included donations to the Carroll Shaw Memorial Centre, and mealie meal to the Takalani Home for the Physically and Mentally Disabled. It endorsed and distributed Khomanani HIV/Aids pledge cards at various events during the year, and players attended a Nike Aids Ribbon function to pledge their support in the fight against HIV/Aids.

Kaizer Chiefs also hosted children from the Reach For A Dream Foundation in KwaZulu-Natal, and distributed hundreds of match day tickets to disadvantaged learners.

Knowledge Factory

Knowledge Factory participates in a number of internships for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, offering workplace experiential learning to students in the fields of geographic information systems (GIS), mathematics and statistics, and to IT technicians in the CIDA ICT Academy/Isett Seta Learnership. This year, the company also introduced a bursary scheme, granting a bursary to one high performing student from the mathematical sciences group doing vacation work with the company.

Knowledge Factory donated data sets to, amongst others, a PhD student at the University of Pretoria conducting research into crime. It donated computers to the Lepelle Secondary School in Marble Hall, Limpopo, and continued to provide golf training for intellectually challenged children in its Play Factory programme.

Knowledge Factory has also helped support the United Cerebral Palsy Association of SA, Oliver’s House, and Action for Blind and Disabled Children, by purchasing their corporate gift sets which contribute to the funding of these organisations.

Megapro Marketing and Signet Licensing

A nominee for the Primedia CSI Award 2006, Megapro Marketing and Signet Licensing continued their support of Doornbosch Primary School in Magaliesberg, assisting the school’s initiatives to provide adult education. The companies modified the classrooms that they had renovated the previous year, to better suit the new adult students.

Also part of Megapro’s corporate social investment is the support of the Bapsfontein Football Club. The company provides kit and equipment for the U15 and U19 teams.

Primedia Broadcasting

The four stations that make up Primedia Broadcasting have had another active year in the CSI arena, with their combined efforts to improve the lot of their respective communities winning the Primedia CSI Award for 2006.

Notable projects for Talk Radio 702 included the 702 Birthday Build, where it built seven houses in Soweto for Habitat for Humanity, and the launch of the 702 FNB Housing Initiative, which will see 702 houses in the government-subsidised Cosmo City housing development being made available to successful applicants.

The station and the Primedia Foundation handed over the old 702 Crisis Centre in Berea, Johannesburg, to the Sisters of Mercy organisation, creating Mercy Centre, a safe house for abused women and children. Those in need were also benefited by the 702 World Aids Day Fundraiser, which raised over R1,5 million in cash pledges, and around R650 000 in goods for SOS Children’s Villages.

Other initiatives included the station’s second birthday wish promotion, which made a difference in the lives of numerous listeners, and the popular 702 Mother’s Day Concert at the Zoo, which raised funds for the upkeep and upgrading of various animal facilities.

The station rounded off its CSI activity by dedicating over R980 000 to flighting public service announcements, and over R1,9 million on social responsibility interviews.

Key CSI initiatives for 94.7 Highveld Stereo included the Pick ‘n Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge, which raised R280 000 for the event’s beneficiary charity, the Homeless Talk Pre-School/Crèche, and a 12-hour initiative to raise funds for HIV/Aids village, Sparrow Village – over R1,5 million was generated, as well as an additional R500 000 in goods and services.

Christmas again saw the station granting wishes to needy people. Over 50 wishes were fulfilled, at a total cost of more than R2 million. Other wishes, this time for the ability to hear, were granted by the 94.7 Highveld Stereo and Bidvest Hear For Life Trust, which, in the first six months of 2006, facilitated cochlear implants totalling almost R400 000 for three hearing impaired people.

Other initiatives included the collection of over 81 tons of clothing and blankets in 94.7 Highveld Stereo’s Operation Ground Cover, and the running of a radiothon for the Tomorrow Trust, with over R5,2 million in pledges being received. The station also raised over R240 000 for Kids Haven at a special performance of the Moscow Circus for the Rude Awakening show’s 10th anniversary.

On top of these and other projects not listed here, 94.7 Highveld Stereo also aired a number of live reads and promotional spots for charities during the financial year, and flighted public service announcements for numerous charities, valued at over R1,2 million.

Primedia Broadcasting’s Cape Town-based talk station, 567 CapeTalk, was involved in projects such as the Big Build, where it built three Habitat for Humanity houses, and the CapeTalk Fire Relief Fund, which generated pledges worth over R1,2 million to help various organisations fighting the fires on Table Mountain.

Its “Silence the Violence” initiative saw over 3 000 people taking to the streets in a silent march, protesting against escalating levels of violence in the city.

The CapeTalk Christmas Garden Party spread goodwill and cheer over the festive season to the children of the Ndlovu Crèche in Monwabisi Park, with each child receiving a gift and a new party outfit, while the crèche itself received donations of appliances, furniture, blankets and clothing.

The station also raised substantial sums of money for the Animal Rescue Foundation and the National Sea Rescue Institute, and helped promote the Cape Town International Kite Festival, which benefits the Cape Mental Health Society.

The flighting of public service announcements and social responsibility interviews, together valued at over R3,3 million, provided a platform for many other needy individuals, charities and organisations.

Finally, 94.5 Kfm ran several CSI initiatives, including a Christmas wish list promotion, which saw the 94.5 Kfm Breakfast Show team granting 40 wishes, ranging from requests for food for underprivileged families at Christmas time, to a request for a glass eye.

Another big event was the 94.5 Kfm Big Dig, which gives 1 000 people the chance to dig up a section of the Muizenberg Main Beach, looking for the keys to a new car. The event raised R100 000 for the Haven Night Shelter in Kalk Bay, and non-governmental organisation, OIL. OIL is a dynamic, non-profit, community development organisation playing a key role in the transformation of communities, encouraging the youth to take Ownership of their lives, to own who they are, to Invest in their lives and to Live their lives to the maximum.

94.5 Kfm’s annual Youth Day Experience provided an opportunity for Grade 11 and 12 learners to learn more about broadcasting, as they ran the station on June 16.

Finally, the station flighted numerous public service announcements and social responsibility interviews. Including features, events and outside broadcasts with a CSI aim, these totalled over R4,4 million.

Primedia Face2Face

Primedia Face2Face adopted Carryou Ministry, an NGO that cares for the homebound, sick and elderly, as well as people affected by HIV/Aids. This year, Primedia Face2Face hosted a Christmas party for the 250 orphans at Carryou Ministry. On top of gifts for the children, Primedia Face2Face also collected toiletries and clothes for them.

The company organised a three-month supply of a nutritional drink manufactured by one of its clients, to help the charity feed needy people, and also teamed up with Carryou to take the Easter Bunny to several schools in the Randfontein area.

Primedia Instore

Primedia Instore’s CSI campaign – “Helpless Today, Empowered Tomorrow” – is aimed at driving home the need to take care of those who are unable to fend for themselves, the children of South Africa. The company plays a pivotal role in driving clients’ CSI campaigns, which are executed in-store using its media services. Clients’ campaigns are afforded added value in the form of free media space, which means increased reach, greater visibility, and longer periods in which to communicate their CSI messages, thus driving up donations for targeted charities.

Primedia Instore offered two of its clients, whose CSI intentions echoed its own CSI mandate, the use of its Shopper Stopper media for their brands’ “buy-and-donate” campaigns. R2,7 million worth of free media space enabled both Danone Clover and Koo to support their respective CSI charities, raising funds for CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation and supporting the Unite Against Hunger Fund respectively.

Primedia Outdoor

Primedia Outdoor’s corporate social investment totalled over R2,7 million, and included ongoing involvement in the Tswelopele project, as well as running outdoor ads for charities.

The Tswelopele project has created jobs and empowered previously disadvantaged individuals. Primedia Outdoor supplies billboard PVC flex faces to Tswelopele, to be transformed into products such as garden furniture covers and sports bags, which are then sold.

The company also offered a number of charities the use of its billboard and bus shelter media, to raise awareness and encourage donations. These charities included the SA Guide-dogs Association, Childline Gauteng, Door of Hope, the “We are Capable” home in Germiston, the Alexandra Home for the Disabled, and the SPCA.

Primedia Publishing

A number of Primedia Publishing’s magazines donated advertising space valued at R526 000 to charitable organisations, including the Nedbank Green Affinity Trust, the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and the Ackerman Pick ‘n Pay Foundation (in exchange for computer equipment for the Alexandra Motswedi Centre, home to Primedia Skills Development). Promotional features were run for a CANSA fund raising evening, and for Miele’s Christmas in July evening, which raised money for the Johannesburg Children’s Home.

The company provided the equipment and materials needed for classes held at the Teboho Trust’s Saturday School workshops, which offer educational programmes to orphaned and vulnerable adolescents affected by HIV/Aids. Publishing’s staff members also financed the teenagers’ transport to these workshops.

Primedia Publishing also furthers education by offering the South African Life College office space, as well as IT support.

Ster-Kinekor

Ster-Kinekor’s key CSI project is the Ster-Kinekor Eye Care project, part of its greater Vision Mission initiative. The Eye Care project seeks to improve eyesight in Grade 1, 2 and 3 learners, giving them eye examinations and corrective glasses where needed. Over 1 000 learners have already benefited from this ongoing project.

The company, which was a nominee for the Primedia CSI Award 2006, placed nine graduates from non-profit educational institution, CIDA City Campus, in its two-month internship programme. It subsequently employed two, and gave a third graduate a threemonth temporary contract.

On top of various ad hoc initiatives, such as hosting a development day for teachers, Ster-Kinekor also supports LoveLife through the sponsorship of free screenings, and it continued its support of the Variety Club, which raises funds for disadvantaged children. Furthermore, it contributed towards skills development by recruiting 10 unemployed people into its learnership programme.

Finally, Ster-Kinekor Games donated PlayStation consoles, valued at almost R10 000, to several charitable causes.

I Kirsh
Chairman

25 October 2006