Calling on all brands to step up
Why can’t JSE-listed companies pool their excess funds to fix broken infrastructure?
SOUTH Africans are living in an age of discontent where protest, transient living, turbulent economics and political deficiency occupy the nation’s minds.
People are agitated and cry out for change. They take to the streets, marching and protesting to effect change in their lives. Some – like we are seeing in the protests in Johannesburg and Alexandra this week – are willing to die to change the status quo.
South Africa has the unenviable accolade of being one of the world’s most unequal societies, where poverty, corruption and systemic structural decay remain the order of the day.
Our citizens remain disadvantaged by poor service delivery and the wage system keeps them trapped in a vicious cycle of debt. What is the role of organisations in tipping the scale towards towards a more inclusive society? The responsibility of creating a society of well-being doesn’t only lie with the government as first responders. Brands are equally accountable as they are the biggest benefactors of economic wealth.
Brands have a responsibility to look beyond their current corporate and social responsibility (CSR) programmes and should take on a bigger role in creating a more equal society.
This responsibility requires a genuine desire to selflessly help solve systemic societal problems – with or without self-serving limitations. I call this brand interventionism or interventionist thinking, a term that is synonymous with political policies.
Interventionist thinking is a willingness by a brand or corporation to get involved in solving problems that afflict citizens or customers from whom their profit is derived. It is a willingness to embrace public sector partnerships to drive structural change.
Of course, this is not to say that some brands in South Africa are not playing their part. OUTsurance, for instance, stands out for its interventionist project, where it placed point men to regulate traffic wherever traffic lights malfunction.
This act of intervening in social issues and building active and mutually