Corporate social responsibility report
INTRODUCTION
Our retail brands, Italtile Retail, CTM and TopT, and manufacturing business, Ceramic Industries, Ezee Tile and PiViCal Panels, support the Group’s commitment to work towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”) to realise a better and more sustainable future for all. As such, the Company has ensured an inclusive community development strategy. Our socio-economic development projects are a combination of structured strategic projects and ad hoc projects that arise from community needs in the areas in which we conduct our business. The common thread is the ability to maintain shared value for the Company and the communities in which we operate. Most of our projects fall within the spheres of education, sports and environment.
CERAMIC INDUSTRIES (“CERAMIC”)
Mahareng High School science lab
In support of the goal to develop critical skills in local communities, Ceramic donated a science laboratory to Mahareng High School in 2018. The company continues to support the school annually with donations of science apparatus for their laboratory and also provides bursaries for top performing learners. Recently, mathematics study guides and calculators were supplied to all matric students, which equipped them to continue to study at home in light of the limited class time caused by the pandemic.
SAMCA TRAC Science Mobile Point
The SAMCA TRAC Science Mobile Point programme was launched in 2019. TRAC implements a hands-on Vernier approach to the teaching of Physical Sciences. Learners, through the support of the learning facilitator, work in groups conducting experiments, recording and analysing results. The teaching of learners using Vernier equipment is key in the understanding of abstract concepts. The high schools that benefit from the SAMCA TRAC Mobile Science Point are Adam Masebe, Makgetse, Hosea Kekana, Lehwelereng and Sikhululekile in Hammanskraal, Gauteng. The programme is structured to not only assist learners with Physical Science practical experiments but also to equip science teachers with the skills to teach the learners. The programme goes beyond the classroom by ensuring that learners have the necessary education to access higher learning institutions. Ultimately, it aims to assist them with accessing the economy and enabling them to better themselves. To date more than 200 learners who have graduated from the programme are enrolled in various higher learning institutions around the country, with some being our bursary holders. Through our apprenticeship programme, 20 learners are undergoing a three-year programme at our SAMCA Wall factory.
TRAC implements a hands-on Vernier approach to teaching Physical Sciences
Early Childhood Development (ECD) tiling project
Ceramic donates tiles to crèches close to our tile factories on an ongoing basis. Since inception of this project, tiles have been donated to more than 600 crèches and primary schools in the Vaal area. Recently, we have partnered with the Sedibeng Department of Social Development to assist with infrastructure development for crèches that are developing and preparing children for Grade 1. Bona Lesedi Day Care Centre in Sharpeville, Gauteng has been identified as one such ECD centre that will receive assistance from Ceramic.
Setlabotjha Primary School uniform handover
School uniforms have the power to level the socio-economic status of students and help to create an environment where the learners have a sense of belonging at school. Setlabotjha Primary School is situated in an area with a high unemployment rate, and as a result, many parents can’t afford to purchase new uniforms for their children. Ceramic has pledged to provide all the learners of this school with new uniforms on an annual basis. In December 2020, the Company handed over more than 900 sets of school uniforms to learners.
Sanitary pack Dignity Drive
Statistics confirm that girls from disadvantaged communities miss school when menstruating because they are unable to afford sanitary products. Our goal is to enable these girls to continue their education without the burden of hygiene risks, discomfort, embarrassment, or the loss of dignity
In August every year, during Women’s Month, Ceramic Industries donates sanitary packs to more than 1 000 school learners from our partner schools. The aim to is ensure that no girl child misses a class at school because she is on her period.
Support for Remember Elite Sports Academy (“RESA”)
RESA is an elite sports academy in Vereeniging, Gauteng, whose goal is to offer the best sports programmes to young, talented sportsmen and women, to help them reach their full potential. It also aims to develop sport in and around the Vaal region. RESA currently comprises two sporting codes, soccer and netball, with prospects of adding more codes as the academy grows. RESA is based at the Ulusha Elite Sports Centre which is the home of the academy. The academy has 150 beneficiaries, with 52 resident sportsmen from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The centre is recognised as a place of hope for the youth of the Vaal, and offers a range of facilities including a soccer field; 25-metre swimming pool; gym hall; conference facility; auditorium and athletes’ dormitories.
In the reporting period, Ceramic and Group companies, PiViCal Panels, Ezee Tile and TopT partnered with RESA, to assist the organisation with revamping their facilities. The companies donated tiles, bathroomware, ceiling panels, ceiling material, paint and adhesives. They also funded the labour for the project and built a new recycling centre on the site. During Nelson Mandela Month, in July 2021, the athletes’ dormitories were revamped, with the aim of inspiring the boys to remain focused on their dreams of becoming professional athletes.
Following our partnership with the academy, the centre has now been established as the Sedibeng District Academy by the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation; the department will contribute further to Sedibeng and RESA athletes with the establishment of a high-performance centre gym.
Zivuseni Agricultural Project
The Zivuseni Agricultural Cooperative is a project located in Vlakfontein, Gauteng. The Zivuseni Shaku Agricultural Primary Cooperative Limited company, which is run by the local community, has been supported by Ceramic Industries for more than 10 years. Its primary objective is to create employment and fight poverty through producing agricultural products. Over the years, Ceramic Industries has provided the cooperative with equipment, infrastructure, mentorship, and funding for the project. The project is now in a position to take its product offering to market. Ceramic, as the owner of the property, is in the process of donating the land to the cooperative, and has assigned a dedicated mentor to ensure the organisation has the appropriate production plans and strategies in place to ensure sustainable growth, and in time, secure further strategic partnerships.
Environmental awareness programmes
Within the communities in which we operate, Ceramic is mindful of its role as an environmental custodian, and we strive to ensure that our activities are conducted responsibly and in the best interests of the planet. In addition, our outreach and awareness programmes and initiatives are designed to benefit our local community members. In the year under review we partnered and collaborated with WESSA in the following interventions: during Water Week in March 2021, we conducted a river clean-up and environmental education day at Sebokeng, and on Environment Day in June 2021, WESSA assisted learners at Atlholang Primary School in Kagiso to design and implement a range of environmental experiments to help them to understand environmental concepts.
ITALTILE LIMITED
National Sea Rescue Institute
The Group is a proud Platinum Partner of the National Sea Rescue Institute (“NSRI”), a registered non-profit organisation that is committed to the prevention of drowning through education, preventative measures and active rescues. The NSRI is staffed by selfless and dedicated volunteers and has rescue bases and lifeguard stations along the coast of South Africa and on inland dams. As a Platinum Partner, the Group makes annual monetary contributions to the NSRI and occasionally assists with renovations of rescue bases either through product or monetary donations; in the 2021 financial year, funds were donated for the renovation of the Plettenberg Bay station.
TopT
School shoes for disadvantaged learners
Large numbers of learners from disadvantaged homes in this country don’t have appropriate shoes to wear to school. In an effort to restore children’s dignity and confidence, the TopT team identified two schools in the Limpopo province where they could assist learners with new school shoes, school socks and book covers at the start of the school year in 2021. These schools were Petamukanda Primary in Louis Trichardt and Hope Primary in Musina. The learners, teachers and parents were grateful for this seemingly small but life-changing gift.
Tawana Children’s Home
Tawana Children’s Home is a feeding centre for sixty children and foster home to 20 in Tembisa, Gauteng. The Home provides a safe haven for abandoned children and those who come from abusive households. TopT came to the assistance of the Home when a recent inspection by the Department of Social Development cautioned that facilities would need to be upgraded or the organisation would risk losing its operating licence. In support of the significant contribution that this facility makes to the community, TopT built a new bathroom and toilet for Tawana and tiled and painted the kitchen. The Home is now fully compliant with regulatory requirements, and the renovations have enabled it to accommodate and cater for additional vulnerable children.
Cradle of Hope is a centre for abused women and children based in Krugersdorp
CTM
Cradle of Hope – Centre for Women and Children
CTM’s ethos is “Everyone deserves a beautiful home”, and our mission is to contribute to making infrastructural improvements to children’s homes in our local communities. Cradle of Hope is a centre for abused women and children based in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, which supports victims of domestic violence and recovering drug addicts. As a non-profit organisation, the Centre’s operating costs are mostly funded by donations from the private sector, leaving limited spare resources for infrastructural improvements. In February 2021, CTM donated tiles to the Cradle of Hope to renovate and beautify their kitchen, play areas and bathroom.
World Environment Day: science expo and environmental education
In the lead-up to World Environment Day in June, CTM partnered with the WESSA, to deliver a three-week environmental education programme at Selope Thema Primary School in Soweto. Gauteng. The Grade 5, 6 and 7 students were taught about the role of science in protecting our environment. The students learnt a number of scientific methods, how to record data, and were given examples of the type of scientific experiments that they could implement. The learners then received materials to put together their own science experiments and received coaching from the WESSA team over two weeks on how to create the science experiments and how to explain the related environmental and scientific concepts. The learners then compiled their experiments, demonstrating concepts such as: climate change; the water cycle; testing acids and bases; density; soil filtration systems, soil erosion, velocity, acceleration and how to create an erupting volcano. On World Environment Day the students held a science expo where they presented their experiments to the teachers, WESSA and CTM team. They conducted the experiments, explained how they worked and showcased what they had learnt over the three-week programme. The school’s science teachers joined the sessions to observe how the experiments were conducted so they could be replicated in other classes. WESSA also provided the teachers with additional learning materials to help them improve how they teach science. Following the school’s request, CTM donated a projector to assist the school to incorporate technology into the classroom setting.
RHINO CONSERVATION
Over the past decade, South Africa has experienced a significant decline in our rhino population with more than 9 000 rhinos lost to poaching.
CTM, in partnership with Ceramic Industries, is a proud supporter of the fight against rhino poaching and has partnered with the organisation Stop Rhino Poaching, which conducts a number of initiatives aimed at protecting rhinos in South Africa. In demonstrating our commitment to rhino conservation, a further R1.3 million was donated to this organisation in March 2021.
Over the years, Stop Rhino Poaching has channelled the funds donated by CTM and Ceramic Industries to purchasing operational equipment; funding critical staff salaries; buying top quality tactical first aid kits supplied to rangers in hot spots; and upskilling rangers who are at the front lines of the fight against poaching every day. Stop Rhino Poaching reports that the financial support received has enabled their organisation to continue developing innovative solutions to curbing rhino poaching.
ITALTILE RETAIL
World Water Week
Tembisa is known for its challenges with the illegal dumping of waste, that in turn often impacts on the rivers in the area. For National Water Week in March, Italtile Retail partnered with the WESSA team to implement an environmental education session and a river cleanup at Moduopo Primary School in Tembisa, Gauteng. This campaign was aimed at raising awareness among the school learners and community about how waste affects our everyday lives. The programme commenced with explaining the importance of water for our everyday lives. This was followed by an informative talk on the different forms of water pollution and a demonstration on the importance of rivers and soil as a natural water filtration. After the lesson, the students enthusiastically cleaned the streets outside the school, progressing down to the Kaalspruit River, where they also picked up litter at the park next to the river. The students and teachers at Moduopo Primary were very proud of what they had achieved to keep their environment clean and found this experience valuable. The lessons on water conservation were important for this particular school as they are constantly affected by municipal water cuts, and often confined to sparingly using water from their JoJo tanks in order to maintain basic hygiene. After the cleanup, the learners returned to the school for an important talk on the three R’s - Recycle, Reuse and Reduce led by the Gauteng Department: Agriculture and Rural Development. A lot of community interest was generated by the clean-up, with the people from the neighbourhood curious to see the learners cleaning the streets; this will hopefully generate awareness about curtailing littering. WESSA will continue to work with the relevant teacher to ensure that the rest of the school can benefit from the information that was shared on the day.
Food security initiative
In October 2020, Italtile Retail collaborated with WESSA on food security initiatives at two of our beneficiary schools, Norridge Primary School and Tshimollo Primary School based in Pretoria, Gauteng. Each school was provided with gardening tools such as rakes, spades and watering cans to help them establish a food garden. They also received 120 seeds and seedlings which included cabbage, beetroot, green beans, carrot, and spinach. The aim of the project was to help the schools establish food gardens so they are able to grow their own vegetables. The produce from the garden would then be used to supplement and increase the nutrition of meals cooked as part of the school feeding programme; and where surplus is produced, this would be shared with underprivileged families from the school. The school maintenance team were part of establishing the garden, so that the WESSA team could train them on how to prepare the land, plant the seeds, control pests, maintain the garden and ensure a healthy harvest of vegetables. A garden maintenance guide was given to the schools to provide more knowledge on how to look after the gardens. This was vital to ensure the sustainability of the garden. Workshops were also hosted at each school in May 2021. These workshops assisted teachers with lesson plans on how they can use the garden as a teaching tool.
Teacher support and Covid-19 resources
The effects of the pandemic challenged us to think differently about how we implement our socio-economic development projects and how to successfully support the schools in our programmes. The Group worked with WESSA to investigate how best to support teachers with the new condensed curriculum so that they could continue to deliver quality education. In August 2020, the Group provided two Italtile-sponsored schools with resources to facilitate the reopening during the pandemic.
The Covid-19 resources were delivered to Norridge Primary School and Tshimollo Primary School. Each school received, masks, hand sanitisers on stands, handwash, infrared thermometers and a hands-free School Hygiene system. With WESSA’s assistance, we worked with the schools to develop a school-centred approach to social distancing, delivered a Covid-19 awareness programme, taught learners how to maintain personal hygiene and assisted them with developing or enhancing their self study skills. Teachers were aided with developing lesson plans and lesson presentation. They were also assisted with developing activities linked to formative and summative assessments.