Corporate cash is the fuel that empowers good works

THE annual Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) donation function held on Thursday again highlighted the tremendous role played by the city’s corporate organisations in attending to the many needs of our communities.

Indeed, with the generosity of companies such as RBCT, many socio-economic situations would worsen to the point of total disaster.

Apart from the vast amount of money invested in the community – and it is an investment, not merely a donation – through such largesse, it also casts a spotlight on the magnificent work being done every day by NGO,

NPO, welfare and volunteer organisations.

Collectively, they attend to a wide cross-section of social, educational and basic everyday life needs.

These range from feeding and clothing the poor to hosting building projects, counselling, skills development, animal care, disaster intervention, providing shelters, and various other vital societal and humanitarian work.

While some do receive State assistance in terms of their office space, resources and staff, this hardly covers the basics and they are inevitably having to appeal to the public to ‘bail them out’.

Others arrange community fundraising events; but while these do add somewhat to the financial resources, there is also the negative effect of having to deviate staff from their normal functions in order to do the planning and attend extra meetings.

Charity does indeed begin at home, as the old adage says, and it takes a collective effort from these organisers and their sponsors, donors and volunteers to keep the doors open.

We have said it many times: without the tremendous CSI efforts of our valued large corporates and businesses, this region would be doomed to witness many more homeless, jobless, and helpless souls.

In giving cash to the organisations that meet the needy at grass roots level, the funders are a vital asset to society.

We salute, in this instance, RBCT and the R1.276-million they have given this year alone, to enable others to reach, teach and minister to the community.