Doing good

The recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal claimed more than 400 lives and left thousands homeless. Car manufacturers Volkswagen, Ford, and Hyundai have jointly donated almost R4 million to the charity Gift of the Givers to provide relief. “Our company believes in solidarity in a crisis, especially when there is a humanitarian emergency which requires swift action to provide aid to individuals and communities,” says Nonkqubela Maliza, Director of Corporate and Government Affairs at Volkswagen South Africa. Neale Hill, president of Ford Motors Africa, says the scale of this disaster is almost indescribable. “We knew immediately that we had to help the victims, and Gift of the Givers has shown that it’s agile and effective in dealing with such tragedies.” “The losses and suffering due to the floods in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) are of a scale unseen in recent times in South Africa. There was no doubt in our minds that we had to contribute to the relief effort in the province by this donation to Gift of the Givers, which has vast experience and many successes in relief and rebuilding operations of this kind,” says Niall Lynch, CEO of Hyundai Automotive SA.