Page 18 - KZN Business Sense 3.4

KZN

KwaZulu-Natal
Business Chambers Council
WHY NOT INVEST YOUR CSI SPEND WITH UKZN?

T he University of guidelines of the King Code of

Corporate Governance IV and the
KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
has an established track
record of assisting companies and Department of Trade and
Industry’s (dti’s) Broad-based
corporates to implement their Black Economic Empowerment
corporate social investment plans (BBBEE) codes.
in a measurable and sustainable
manner. UKZN is a registered BBBEE Codes
Non-Prot Organisation (NPO) Current trends have propelled
and has Public Benet business houses to be more
Organisation (PBO) status from proactive and participate in the
the South African Revenue socioeconomic vicinity. Further-
Services. In addition, UKZN has more, the South African
recently been rated among the top government regulation has carved
three research led institutions in out a unique and explicit role for
the country. Furthermore, the CSI. As CSI is entrenched in the
university trains thousands of codes they compel companies to
students in scarce skills disciplines invest 1% of Net Prot aer Tax
each year, with many of these (NPAT) in socio-economic
students being unable to pay for development (SED) initiatives.
their tuition, accommodation or e recent revision to the BBBEE
books. codes create new opportunities for
NGOs and Public Benet
Your company can donate to the organisations such as public
UKZN Bursary Fund via the universities to seek support,
UKZN Foundation Trust. e especially in the skills
UKZN Foundation is able to issue development space.
certicates in respect of all
contributions received for its e Codes dier from previous
Bursary Fund. ese will be legislation in that they include
deductible as a donation in terms targets for BEE compliance, and
of Section 18A of the Income Tax progress is measured according to
Act. All contributions made to the the Scorecard, which has specied
UKZN Bursary Fund will also targets for each of the ve
qualify for BEE points in terms of elements. ese involve
the new BBBEE codes of good ownership, management and
practice. control, employment equity, skills
development, preferential
Identifying Gaps procurement, enterprise
Corporate Social Investment development and a residual CSI
(CSI), remains a relatively new element.
concept globally yet it is fast
gaining momentum across the Skills Development
world as well as here at home in e third pillar of the revised
South Africa. Many organisations Codes identies skills
have realised that beyond making development as a priority area and
prots, they are responsible to allows companies to claim as
their various stakeholders and many as 20 points. ere is a shi
have an obligation towards the in the revised codes for companies
improvement of their to include non-employees in their
environment, local communities skills development plans. A high
and ethical practices. is involves target of 6% of payroll needs to be
implementing well-structured spent on training, in order to
plans of their corporate social achieve maximum points for skills
initiatives. It is envisaged that spend. Companies may struggle to
these companies would identify spend this on their own
gaps within communities before employees.
they implement any social
initiatives. Planned initiatives NPOs such as UKZN, can oer
generally tend to appropriately another avenue for spending on
promote social harmony, social the development of black people
justice, access and upliment who are not employees of the
within a target community. company in the form of bursaries,
learnerships, internships or
Four Primary Drivers apprenticeship programmes.
It has been estimated that in
2016, R8.6 billion rand was spent Donations
on CSI initiatives in South Africa. To donate to UKZN visit
is is strong evidence that CSI our website at
spending in South Africa has seen www.foundation.ukzn.ac.za or
phenomenal growth within the email us at foundation@ukzn.ac.za
last decade. Recent research has and one of our experienced
pinpointed four primary drivers Development Ocers will contact
for the incremental ow of you to discuss how UKZN could
resources to the non-prot sector. support your CSI spend.
ese reasons are; moral
imperative, reputation, the

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