The
Donald Gordon Foundation

Since 1971

About us
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Encouraging Excellence

Protecting Democracy

Caring for Community

Our Flagship Projects

The Gordan Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
The Wits Donald Gordan Medical Centre (WDGMC)

Section27
Daily Maverick

The Chevrah Kadisha

CDE is South Africa’s leading development think tank.

Since its establishment in 1995, CDE has been consulting widely, gathering evidence and generating innovative policy recommendations on issues critical to economic growth and democratic consolidation. By examining South African and international experience, CDE formulates practical policy proposals outlining ways in which South Africa can tackle major social and economic challenges. CDE has a special focus on the role of business and markets in development.

CDE disseminates its research and proposals to a national audience of policy-makers, opinion formers and the wider public through printed and digital publications, which receive wide media coverage. Their track record of successful engagement enables CDE to bring together experts and stakeholders to debate the policy implications of research findings.

The CDE continues to make the case for policy reform which will give real effect to the South African government’s stated intention to put jobs and growth at the heart of the country’s development strategy.

The past year has seen many achievements where CDE’s impact and its expanding reach into circles of power can be seen:

CDE partnered with Business Leadership South Africa, the most influential business organisation in the country, to develop a major policy document as a resource for business leaders Reclaiming South Africa’s Future: An emergency recovery plan. This sets out the most critical steps that the country needs to take in order to avoid further economic and political decline. The report was finalised by the end of February, although political and economic developments in the country necessitated an explanatory memorandum as a ‘post script’ which was prepared during March. The report has not been publicly released (for strategic reasons as its finalisation coincided with the election of the country’s new president) but it has served to inform BLSA’s strategic engagement with the president and government at various levels from its first draft, as well as the engagements and inputs made by business leaders in the public square.

This partnership added considerable weight to CDE’s recommendations and gave CDE direct access to business leadership. It also offered an opportunity for the new leadership and management at BLSA to get to know CDE and what we can offer. This has laid the foundation for identifying opportunities to work together in the months ahead.

CDE arranged a number of discussions and workshops in preparation for the policy report. The executive director hosted five dinners with business leaders, as well as two workshops on fiscal crisis and state capture with experts in these areas. These discussions assisted with the rigorous analysis that underpinned the recommendations, and ensured that new perspectives informed the recommendations themselves.

Urban-led economic growth

CDE arranged for the world’s leading urban economist, Professor Edward Glaeser from Harvard University to participate in a workshop with the executive mayor of Johannesburg and his senior team, as well as business leaders and urban experts. The focus of the workshop on 24 August 2018 was on how Johannesburg can become an engine for economic growth and prosperity, in line with the vision for urban-led economic growth for the country as a whole. The workshop was followed by a dinner where the executive mayor engaged with business leaders. CDE and the City of Cape Town hosted similar discussions looking at Cape Town with a different focus a few days later.

CDE is now in the process of taking this work forward with the release of a report before the end of the year and further research which will be commissioned in the coming months. Professor Glaeser’s contribution and role was exceptional and CDE is working towards bringing him back to South Africa in the new year.

CDE released an op-ed on this topic last September: Deep change is needed to bring SA’s young people into the economy, Business Day, 8 September 2017.

Labour intensive growth

A major focus of CDE’s work is on how to achieve economic growth that will tackle the huge challenge of unemployment in the country. With this in mind, CDE hosted an insightful Roundtable, Increasing the Labour Intensity of South Africa’s economy on 13 June 2018. It was attended by the country’s leading experts in public, private and academic sectors and the excellent presentations by a range of stakeholders informed a rich discussion and some interesting recommendations. A report on the Roundtable will be published within the next month.

Jobs Summit

CDE set up a series of preparatory discussions shortly after the President’s announcement in the State of the National Address of his intention to host a Jobs Summit. Three dinners were hosted with the CEOs and chairmen of leading companies to think about possible approaches in light of the scale of the challenge that confronts policy makers and leaders. Another two discussions took place which focused on the role of cities in job-creation.

This enabled CDE to develop a clear set of messages in the week leading up to the Jobs Summit which took place in Johannesburg on 4 and 5 October 2018. An infographic clearly set out the scale of the challenge, and the accompanying communication reiterated the urgent need for the Summit to boldly tackle the policies that are inhibiting labour intensive growth and the proliferation of firms that could employ more people.

The op-eds published on this topic were:

Jobs crisis needs new approach, Sunday Times, 30 September 2018
Jobs plan should make large cities opportunity centres for more people, Business Day, 1 September 2017

The following areas of CDE’s work are aligned with our strategy of achieving labour intensive growth in South Africa.

Youth unemployment

The extraordinarily high numbers of unemployed youth in South Africa present a particular and urgent challenge. Building on the August 2017 release of research and consultation on this topic over two years and in the 20 metropolitans areas with the highest numbers of unemployed youth, CDE has continued to highlight the plight of young South Africans and their difficulties with entering the labour market.

In addition to presentations on this topic to influential audiences and organisations, three op-eds were published during the reporting period:

Deep change is needed to bring SA’s young people into the economy, Business Day, 08 September 2017
How to fix the crisis of youth unemployment in the country, The Sowetan, 12 September 2017
Smart growth and jobs for the army of unemployed youth must be 2019 priorities, Sunday Times, 17 October 2017

CDE is currently thinking about a programme which will help to make youth unemployment one of the pressing topics of public engagement in the period leading up to the 2019 elections.

Manufacturing and employment

CDE hosted a visit to South Africa by Harvard Professor Robert Lawrence, leading authority on manufacturing and trade. Professor Lawrence was the guest speaker at a number of CDE events, including a colloquium co-hosted by National Treasury at which the deputy director general, Ismail Momoniat, warmly welcomed CDE’s work to an audience of around 80 senior officials. In addition, he spoke at two public events, one in Cape Town in partnership with Wesgro, on 27 February and one in Johannesburg at CDE’s offices on 12 March 2018. Around 150 government and business decision makers attended these events.

Professor Lawrence was the guest speaker at CDE’s Global Advisory Dinner which brings together the CEO’s of leading companies, with CDE’s supporters and friends. There was considerable discussion around issues of beneficiation where Professor Lawrence’s expertise and global experience added a richness to the concerns of South African business leaders. A report, The Future of Manufacturing Employment covering these engagements was distributed in August 2018.

Business and reform

Underpinning much of this work has been an additional focus on business and its role in South Africa’s much needed economic and political reform. The chief executives and chairmen of at least 15 of South Africa’s large companies gave their time to CDE for one on one discussions with CDE’s executive director in interviews earlier this year about the role that business could and should be playing in South Africa. In addition, CDE hosted two discussions on business and the new political environment. This informed a presentation by the executive director at the Global Advisory Council meeting which took place on 8 March 2018.

Following these discussions and considerable work by CDE we decided to write a hard hitting op ed about the ‘silence’ in the public arena since President Ramaphosa’s election as president. Essentially we called on business organisations and individuals to lead! See : Business’ path of least resistance to government is a recipe for disaster, Business Day, 21 September 2018.

CDE is currently considering different ways to think through the business contribution to reform both before and after the general election in 2019.

Land Reform

An important topic of vital national interest and attention during the reporting period was land reform. The February 2018 resolution passed by Parliament instructing a review of Section 25 of the constitution made this a national focus of intention. CDE initiated a process of making a constructive contribution to the current debates, and sharing the extensive work it had undertaken on the topic in the past.

During May, CDE released two short notes on the topic: CDE, Business and Land Reform, as well as The Looming Land Restitution Crisis. The former details the work undertaken by CDE in partnership with business ten years ago, as the recommendations are still relevant today. The latter provides on overview of the sorry state of the land restitution process, setting out the facts to inform public debate in the topic.

On 20 June 2018 CDE hosted an expert Roundtable Agriculture, Land Reform and Jobs: Can South Africa make this work? It was a very successful event with participation by commercial agricultural interests and organisations, academic experts and leading advisors to the ANC on land reform policy. A substantial report for public dissemination is currently being finalised, and CDE intends to publish another report on the topic as well examining some of the not very realistic ideas currently popular on small-scale farming. Two op-eds appeared in Business Day and online on these two topics.

Land-reform plan has been drawn up – it just needs willing leaders, Business Day, 24 April 2018
Huge number of land claims and chaos of overlaps must be resolved. Business Day on 15 June 2018

A report on the Roundtable and related reports and material will be released by CDE before the end of October 2018.

Skills development and youth employment

The number of young people in South Africa (aged between 15 and 34) who are not in education, training or employment (“the NEETs”) now stands at close to 8 million. This is considerably more than the 6,1 million young people who do have jobs.

CDE has started a three-year research and advocacy project, funded by Standard Bank’s Tutuwa Foundation, which will seek to contribute a better and more nuanced understanding of who these NEETs are, where they are located, do they have matric or not and so on, including the particular challenges they face and the support and interventions which could change their trajectory. The research will also look at the training opportunities available to the NEETS, particularly those who do not have a matric. The objective is to develop a set of recommendations for the country on how to tackle this challenge.

CDE will host a workshop towards the end of November which will bring together the many individuals and organisations working in this field, with the intention of establishing a reliable picture of what is happening within this ‘sector’. Two research papers have also been commissioned.

Publications and reports

CDE released four policy reports during the reporting period which were distributed to a database of over 15 000 people:

A Short Note on CDE, Business and Land Reform (May 2018)
The Looming Land Restitution Crisis (May 2018)
Forging a “New Deal” for South Africa? The contribution of Parliament’s High Level Panel Report (May 2018)
The Future of Manufacturing Employment (August 2018)

In addition to the policy reports, CDE initiated the VIEWPOINTS series and re-released past op-eds on relevant topics as collections focused on a particular issue.

VIEWPOINTS draws on the expertise of South Africans in a range of organisations to encourage informed debate on issues critical to South Africa’s development. All reports are circulated to the full CDE database, around 15 000 people.

The following VIEWPOINTS were released:

The future prospects of South African universities by Jonathan Jansen (June 2018)
Why land expropriation without compensation is a bad idea by Wandile Sihlobo and Tinashe Kapuya (July 2018)
State, Market and Competition: Can Eskom be rescued? By Lumkile Mondi (September 2018)
Labour market reform is needed for inclusive growth by Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings (October 2018)

The five collections of CDE op-eds were grouped together in topics and widely distributed:

CDE op-eds on Radical Economic Transformation (13 October 2017)
CDE op-eds on Inclusive Economic Growth (1 November 2017)
CDE op-eds on Cities and Inclusive Growth (18 January 2018)
CDE op-eds on Taking poverty and inequality seriously (Part 1) (5 April 2018)
CDE op-eds on Taking poverty and inequality seriously (Part 2) (16 April 2018)

Media and communications:

CDE has spent time implementing a media strategy which ensures that CDE’s work and recommendations receive regular coverage in mainstream media. Attention has also been paid to opportunities arising in social media, and the organisation is in the process of finalising a social media strategy. During this period, CDE’s executive director has been interviewed on television and radio nine times:

Tim Modise Network #Ontherbrink Debate (30 September 2018)
BBC Media Interview (27 September 2018)
Ashraf Garda, The View Point (Big Hitter) (Monday 17 September 2018)
Tim Modise Network (23 June 2018)
Classic FM on 28 May 2018 on the topic of CDE’s report on the High Level Panel’s recommendations to parliament regarding the impact of legislation on inequality, poverty and unemployment
Soweto TV Tonight with Tim Modise (with Lumkile Mondi) 23 May 2018
BBC (16 February 2018) on the topic of a change in Presidency and its impact on the economy
ENCA’s Moneyline (19 September 2017) on the topic of World Economic Forum’s Human Capital Report
SABC 2, The Big Debate (25 November 2017) on the topic of state capture

A total of ten op-eds were placed in leading national titles during this period:

Jobs crisis needs new approach, Sunday Times, 30 September 2018
Business’ path of least resistance to government is a recipe for disaster, Business Day, 21 September 2018
New Deal a mirage unless President sells an enterprise-friendly strategy, Business Day, 5 September 2018
Huge number of land claims and chaos of overlaps must be resolved. Business Day on 15 June 2018
World bank warns SA is in a cycle that breeds poverty and inequality, Business Day, 3 May 2018
Land-reform plan has been drawn up – it just needs willing leaders, Business Day, 24 April 2018
Smart growth and jobs for the army of unemployed youth must be 2019 priorities, Sunday Times, 17 October 2017
How to fix the crisis of youth unemployment in the country, Sowetan, 12 September 2017
Deep change is needed to bring SA’s young people into the economy, Business Day, 08 September 2017
Jobs plan should make large cities opportunity centres for more people, Business Day, 1 September 2017

The work that they do and their ability to bring together diverse interests and perspectives to discuss vital national issues is one of the unique features of CDE.

The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)

Founded in 2000, the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) is an internationally accredited business school, based in Johannesburg, South Africa's economic hub.

GIBS is named in recognition of Sir Donald Gordon, founder and former chairman of Liberty Life. This was in acknowledgement of not only his contribution to South African business but also his significant endowment to GIBS. This is just one example of Sir Donald Gordon’s foresight in building a better South Africa with strong institutions, his generosity having stretched well beyond educational institutions.

From inception GIBS has worked hard to be close to business, to understand the drivers of social change and to work with organisations and individuals to explore ways to responsibly improve their competitive performance. The Business School operates primarily in the South African environment and increasingly in the broader African environment, through the provision of high quality business and management education.

Over any given year GIBS works with more than 6 000 executives, managers and scholars from a range of countries, including Europe, Asia and Latin America, and many from Africa.

GIBS has been consistently ranked as the top African business school for executive education by UK Financial Times in their annual Executive Education ratings and is also the only African business school to have an MBA ranked by this prestigious publication.

GIBS is accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and is a member of the South African Business Schools Association (SABSA), and the Association of African Business Schools (AABS).

GIBS prepares students to become successful business leaders. The School’s MBA graduates are making a commendable impact on South Africa, for example;

Dr Nthabiseng Legoete established Quali Health, a private healthcare organisation which provides much needed quality medical care to under serviced areas such as Diepsloot, Alexandra, Braamfischerville and Tembisa.
Stacey Brewer & Ryan Harrison who started Spark Schools, a network of affordable private primary schools dedicated to delivering accessible, internationally benchmarked, high quality education in 2013. This school network has grown exponentially since inception.

While the MBA remains a cornerstone of the programmes offered at GIBS, the School remains mindful of the unequal society in which we live. Creating managers who have the ability to understand the dynamics of Africa’s two-tier economy is of paramount importance.

In addition to the School’s primary focus areas of post-graduate, post-experience degree programs and executive education, GIBS has also built various specific centres of excellence such as:

The Centre for African Management and Markets (CAMM) is a keystone in GIBS’ mission to be “close to business” not just in South Africa, but across our continent. The CAMM team is dedicated to generating and sharing a sophisticated understanding of business in markets throughout Africa, while growing partnerships with business, the public sector and academia to drive better business on the continent.

The Entrepreneurship Development Academy (EDA) is the heart of entrepreneurial development and thinking at GIBS. The centre works with entrepreneurs in both the formal and informal sectors, at various phases of their business development, from start-up through to high-impact growth. It has particular expertise in women, township, social and green entrepreneurship, with the development of young entrepreneurs as a foundational theme across our portfolio.

The Centre for Leadership, Ethics and Dialogue (C-LED) encompasses activities, programmes and strategic engagements aimed at enhancing interaction between business, government, unions and civil society in the current South African context. The centre brings together a broad range of individuals and groups in order to explore opportunities to better address the most urgent and complex political, social and economic issues facing the nation.

The Ethics and Governance Think Tank forms part of C-LED and was launched to confront the risk of South Africa’s future being threatened by ethical failure and grave social challenges. Its purpose is to facilitate a national conversation about business ethics leading to practical measures and outcomes. This will make an important contribution to the understanding, awareness and practice of business ethics in South Africa, and ultimately the moral regeneration of the country.

The School continues to grow and develop well rounded leaders who will take South Africa into the future. The generosity of Sir Donald Gordon has made all of this possible.

The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) is a pioneering initiative established in 1999 by Stellenbosch University. It operates at the cutting edge of science and fosters links between science and society, doing so by structuring its research programme with a strong focus on interdisciplinarity. It already provides a unique research environment, the first of its kind on the African continent.

STIAS follows the known and tested format of an Institute for Advanced Study, with the iconic Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Stanford, Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg), Uppsala (SCAS), and Amsterdam (NIAS) serving as prime role models. In this capacity STIAS puts an emphasis on attracting the foremost global thinkers on a regular basis, thereby providing a key stimulus for shaping the local discourse.

In its choice of research projects, STIAS promotes innovative, fundamental and groundbreaking research not for its own sake, but by maintaining contact with African challenges and the practical needs of a developing continent. Its aim is the generation of cutting edge knowledge that makes a difference in the world we live in. As current and completed projects show, its success has far-reaching consequences for the future of South Africa and the African continent. Apart from a very strong publication record in top research journals, the outcome of several of its longer term projects has been captured in the STIAS series of book publications – stias.ac.za/publications/stias-series-of-book-publications. The topics range over
The Humanist Imperative in South Africa;
Theory from the South – How Euro-America is evolving toward Africa;
Climate Change Remedies – Injunctive Relief and Criminal Law Responses;
Education First! From Martin Luther to Sustainable Development;
The Effects of Race, and many more.

Over the past decade STIAS has been able to achieve its goals to

Advance the cause of science and scholarship across all disciplines and invest in the intellectual future of the country and the continent;
Focus on Africa;
Provide an independent space where innovative ideas and original thinking can thrive.

On the historic Mostertsdrift estate in Stellenbosch the STIAS research programme is supplemented by the programmes of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) and the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (NITheP), both funded by the NRF and DST. Most recently the last remaining historical building on Mostertsdrif (the stables) has been refurbished to establish and accommodate a Centre for Complex Systems in Transition, with a strong focus on Sustainability and the Green Economy.

STIAS now offers state of the art research and seminar facilities for its own programme of research fellowships. Nobel laureates Sydney Brenner, Gerard ’t Hooft, Harald zur Hausen and Joseph E. Stiglitz are Fellows of STIAS, as are Manuel Castells and Ian Hacking, both recipients of the International Holberg Prize (widely seen as the "Nobel" for social sciences) and Donald Gordon Fellows of STIAS; Stephen Hawking and Nobel laureates David Gross and George Smoot count among visitors participating in workshops and public events.

A copy of the STIAS 2017 Annual Report (and earlier reports) may be found in pdf and online pageable formats at stias.ac.za/annual-reports.

Recent Highlights

A recent invitation to join a consortium of ten other independent Institutes for Advanced Study, which includes all those from which STIAS drew its inspiration (as listed earlier – the ‘Some Institutes for Advanced Study’ group) signals a level of international recognition which will certainly strengthen the STIAS programme and enhance its ability to draw international researchers of note.

In 2016 STIAS introduced its Iso Lomso (isiXhosa for “eye of tomorrow”) early career support programme for young researchers from Africa, offering a range of support mechanisms and residency at STIAS (and other Institutes for Advanced Study) over a three year period. This programme is now well established (see stias.ac.za/iso-lomso) and creates a platform where senior academics from around the globe can interact with thevery best of young African researchers.

A number of new initiatives related to long-term theme projects at STIAS (see stias.ac.za/research/themes) have recently been undertaken, including first periods of residency at STIAS of a core group of fellows developing a Health in Transion project: The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) & Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Moving Towards Early Implementation in Africa. They conducted two annual workshops with representatives from all the major geographical regions of Africa, including a number of young researchers affiliated to the African Academy of Sciences.

STIAS recenty added University and Society: Disruption, Discourse and New Directions (see stias.ac.za/research/themes/university-and-society) to its portfolio of longer term theme projects.

STIAS continues to host long term projects dealing with the foundations of quantum mechanics and recent developments in quantum computation and communication. A highlight in 2018 was an international workshop at STIAS on Cryptography in the quantum age. In residence at STIAS before and during this workshop was Professor Jianwei Pan from the University of Science and Technology of China, widely hailed as the “father of the Chinese programme in quantum communication”. In September 2017 many headlines carried the news that his team used a satellite to beam photons to Beijing and Vienna, generating quantum encryption keys that allowed teams in these two cities to video-chat with complete security; he was also named one of Nature’s 2017 “Ten People who made a Difference” (see
www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-017-07763-y/index.html). Pan gave a public lecture at STIAS.

Since 2008 the Donald Gordon Foundation has established and supported a number of Donald Gordon Fellowships to attract some of the world’s foremost thinkers to STIAS where they pursue their own work within the local context, are integrated as far as possible into a STIAS research project, and participate in a structured programme of seminars and public lectures. These Donald Gordon Fellowships enable STIAS to maintain and expand its role as an address for leading global thinkers for which STIAS naturally has to compete with precisely those institutions (and leading universities) that have inspired its conception and implementation. STIAS has an edge in terms of novelty, global desire for African success, and local costs; nevertheless it has to compete with offers of northern hemisphere salary equivalents.

Early Donald Gordon Fellows at STIAS include Profs Leonard Susskind, Kip Thorne (Physics Nobel Laureate in 2017), Lynn Margulis, Nancy Fraser, Evelyn Fox-Keller, Carol Gilligan, Manuel Castells, and Michael Ruse, former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, and Athol Fugard and Nobel Laureate JM Coetzee.

Donald Gordon Fellows at STIAS in 2017

Prof. Ian Goldin – Oxford (former Director of the Oxford Martin School); in residence at STIAS from 12 January to 11 May 2017; project Interdisciplinary Approaches to Meeting Long Term Challenges.
Prof. Onur Güntürkün – Ruhr-University Bochum, in residence at STIAS from 15 January to 15 April 2017; project The Functional Structure of Brain Asymmetries: A Unified Theory.
Prof. Joseph Stiglitz – Columbia University and recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001. He was in residence at STIAS from 7 – 16 November and gave a public lecture on 14 November on the topic The Revolution of Information Economics: The Past and the Future.

Donald Gordon Fellows at STIAS in 2018 – 2020

Profs. Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bruce Ackerman (Yale University) were in residence at STIAS from 10 January to 16 March 2018. Both are law scholars whose projects respectively dealt with Expertise and Public Participation in Government Policymaking: South Africa in Comparative Context and Three Paths to Constitutionalism. Prof. Rose-Ackerman presented a STIAS public lecture on 12 February 2018: Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences and Reform.
Prof. Ian Goldin – Oxford (former Director of the Oxford Martin School) was in residence at STIAS from 6 - 28 January February 2018; project The economic and social impact of disruptive technologies. He has recently accepted a nomination as one of the Permanent Visiting Fellows of STIAS (see stias.ac.za/fellows-of-stias/permanent-visiting-fellows-of-stias); this means that he wil be participating in the STIAS programme on a regular basis, with a first next residency envisaged for 2020. Prof..
Prof. Manuel Castells (University of Southern California); was in residence 16 July to 16 August 2018. He conducted a two-day seminar on 7-8 August on the topic National Identities and State Formation, attended by a number of scholars from Africa and Europe.
Prof. Kathleen Thelen, Ford Professor of Political Science, MIT, will be in residence at STIAS from 1^st March – 30 April 2019, working on the project Digital Capitalism.
Prof. David Ellerman (University of California at Riverside) is in residence at STIAS from 15 January – 15 April 2019, working on the project Neo-Abolitionism: The Case Against the Employer-Employee System.
Prof. Nina Jablonski (Anthropologist from Penn State University, and another Permanent Visiting Fellow of STIAS) will be in residence mid-January to 31 March 2020 to work on a book project The Human Obsession …. With Hair.

The Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC) is the first and only private teaching hospital in Africa.

It was established in 2002 when the Donald Gordon Foundation bought the Kenridge Hospital for the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and we set about renovating, rebuilding, and equipping it with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. The institution was then renamed the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre.

In 2005, Mediclinic Private Hospital Group became a partner with Wits University and was also awarded the management contract.

The hospital was established to create a facility in the private sector to train and retain specialists and sub-specialists in South Africa for South Africa. All training programmes are fully integrated and complementary to the existing training programmes within the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences.

Having successfully encouraged private practitioners to join its mission, the hospital’s occupancy slowly developed to a 50% level and in 2009 finally began making a profit. The hospital now runs at maximum capacity and has established itself as a referral centre for complex surgery in the fields of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Colorectal Surgery ,Oncology Vascular Surgery in particular.

The first private Liver Transplant Unit was established in 2004, and the centre now hosts the largest Solid Organ Transplant Programme in the country. We are delighted to be opening a newly built Transplant Wing which houses a Dedicated Paediatric Liver Transplant ward as well as a dedicated Transplant ICU. This unit will open in March 2019.

Training of specialist practitioners started for the first time in 2007 when the first trainees were appointed. Since then it has grown from three registrars and one fellow to seventeen fellowships and six registrars. A total of 78 Specialists and Sub-specialists have been trained in the last 11 years with 4 times that number receiving a period of training at the facility as part of the rotational training with the other sites in the Wits Health Sciences Faculty Training Platform.

All profits generated at the facility are used to fund the training of specialists and sub-specialists. This is augmented by the support of donors, without whom the programme would not have grown to the level that it has.

In 2014, we established the WDGMC Research Unit, the first of its kind in the Private Health care sector in South Africa. The unit has been successful in mentoring private practitioners to carry out clinical research with the view to improving patient care.

The Centre has recruited and trained a group of dedicated practitioners who are committed to ensuring the future of health care and training in South Africa, which sets it apart from other private hospitals in the country.

The Centre provides training in disciplines that are currently not available to the same extent, if at all, anywhere else in South Africa, and enables the retention of highly skilled doctors within the country.

The Donald Gordon Foundation Division of Geriatric Medicine

The Division of Geriatric Medicine is jointly based at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre and the Helen Joseph Hospital. The unit was established in March 2007 and is currently the largest Sub-specialist Geriatric Medicine Unit (from both a training and service delivery perspective) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The unit is unique in that to date all funding for the training posts of the unit have been from the Donald Gordon Foundation via the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre. The unit is also unique in that it is entirely run by fulltime private practitioners affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand via the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre. The unit is accredited with the Health Professions Council since 2008. Since June 2011 there has been a rotating medical registrar, and since January 2012 sub-speciality fellowship trainees. Since 2014 the training platform has been expanded to also facilitate the diploma of Geriatric Medicine for general practitioners.

(The Wits Geriatric Medicine unit has thus to date trained 35% of currently registered Sub-specialist Geriatricians in Sub-Saharan Africa)

The Wits and Kwa-Zulu Natal Geriatric Medicine Units spearheaded the development of a Diploma in Geriatric Medicine to be examined via the South African Geriatrics Society by the Colleges of Medicine in South Africa (CMSA) but run at local HPCSA accredited University Geriatric Medicine Divisions. This Diploma was finally approved and commenced in April 2014. The Wits Division of Geriatric Medicine is providing the necessary training support to practitioners who will be undertaking the Diploma in Geriatric Medicine. The curriculum for the Diploma is as per the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa which is available on their website.

We continue with a program to meet the requirements of further general practitioners.

Our division again actively contributed to the annual South African Geriatrics Society meeting 24th till 26th August held in Durban. The meeting attracted 164 participants with 112 being general practitioners.

The division has made a substantial contribution to research and has many Journal Publications to its credit.

Clinical trials:

Dr Stanley Lipschitz has participated in more than 75 clinical trials as a principal investigator in his fields of interest of osteoporosis/metabolic bone disease and memory disorders.

Academic research:

The division of geriatric medicine in collaboration with the health in transition unit of the department of public health, Wits university and the Harvard School of Public Health to participate in a rural study entitled: Cognitive Function, Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in the HAALSI Cohort. Funding is being raised for this project.
Additional rural outreach training projects are in the planning phase in the Bushbuckridge area – HAALSI/Agincourt Study platform.
Three posters and one oral presentation was performed at the Faculty of Health Sciences research day in September 2018.
Our division is presenting 7 invited talks at the 2018 World Congress of Internal Medicine in Cape Town in October 2018.

DIVISION AWARDS

Discovery foundation sub-specialist award in 2011 to facilitate training of one sub-specialist.
Best poster award at 20th IAGG meeting, Seoul 2013. Poster - PP26 C-074. Comparison of hip fracture mortality before and after introducing an Orthogeriatrics Unit at Helen Joseph Hospital, Johannesburg. India Butler, Lindy Sinclair, Brent Tipping and Andrew Boulle.
Drs Tipping, Butler and Coetzer were all awarded the Mandela Gold Medallion on the 7th December 2014 at Waterkloof Airforce Base by President Jacob Zuma for exceptional care rendered to the late former president Nelson Mandela.
Brent Tipping was promoted to Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, July 2017.

SECTION27 is a well-established public interest law centre that seeks to achieve substantive equality and social justice in South Africa. Guided by the principles and values in the Constitution, SECTION27 uses law, advocacy, legal literacy, research and community mobilisation to improve access to healthcare services and quality basic education. SECTION27 works tirelessly to alleviate short term crises such as textbook shortages and infrastructure crises in the health and education. But their overall aim is to achieve structural change and accountability to ensure the dignity and equality of everyone.

Underpinning all of their work is the promotion of the rights to equality and dignity as well as the principles of good governance and accountability. Across their areas of work we are concerned with ensuring that both public and private power is exercised responsibly, accountably and in the interest of justice.

Their mission is to expand access to justice for marginalised and vulnerable citizens in the interests of equality and to ensure they are empowered to realise their constitutional rights.

Protecting independent public institutions and demanding good governance:

Over the last few years SECTION27 has been involved in a number of initiatives to challenge corruption and hold the executive to the principles of the Constitution.

SECTION27 is currently a partner in an initiative to Save South Africa which calls on all South Africans to come together in a campaign to highlight our common values and demand open, accountable and responsive government.

Save South Africa demands principled, ethical leadership. It calls for:

President Zuma to step down from office.

The election of a new President who respects the Constitution and upholds its values.

An end to the abuse of executive power.

A national dialogue on the restoration of democratic values and beliefs.

A renewed climate of civic engagement.

SECTION27 has a national footprint, specifically through their work in education and health. They have established firm partnerships with community organisations and coalitions. They have an ability and track record of intervening in the big questions which have been posed far too frequently. They have managed to establish themselves as a legitimate voice in the eyes of ordinary people as well as with leaders across the spectrum of society. They are passionate about education and health and their daily work has been a conduit into trying to address the political challenges we currently face. This has also placed them close to the networks of power and gives them opportunities to truly play a role towards a better life for all. If we are appropriately funded they can have a meaningful impact on improving our education system and in turn play an even more central role towards a better future for our country.

Freedom of opinion and a free press are vital enduring values – so much so that they are enshrined in the South African Constitution. Their protection is essential and cannot be left to others or taken for granted. Without a free media South Africa would be on a trajectory to despotism. The media is called ‘The Fourth Estate’ because it is so essential a pillar of society, a critical check and balance to counter untruths and corruption. Daily Maverick is the only truly (literally!) free voice left in South Africa’s media.

Daily Maverick has no political agenda and is aligned to no ideological standpoint other than its commitment to report the truth without fear or favour.

Highly unusual in the media is their absolute transparency. In this era of ‘fake news’ the Daily Maverick is rare: nothing is opaque or unavailable. Their ownership structure is open to scrutiny, all bylines transparent, all journalists identified.

The Daily Maverick has, over the years, has worked on several large exposés that have affected the very trajectory of South Africa’s society. From exposing police brutality in the Marikana massacre, through the lies behind the SARS “Rogue Unit” reporting, and more recently the GuptaLeaks, Daily Maverick has been a potent force informing the debate in South Africa.

Through exposing the inner mechanism of State Capture and documenting corruption at the highest levels of government and state-owned enterprises, Daily Maverick has played a central role in the events which ultimately led to the resignation of President Jacob Zuma. It is clear that without the Daily Maverick Jacob Zuma would still be President of South Africa, and Mrs Dlamini Zuma the President of the ANC and his successor in the Union Buildings. State capture would have been completed and the Guptas ensconced in Saxonwold. The Treasury would have been pillaged, and Eskom, Transnet, SAA, Denel – all of the State Owned Enterprises would have been closer to collapse than they are.

Daily Maverick has done the investigations and research where the Hawks have failed, and the Daily Maverick has provided the evidence necessary for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Parliamentary Committees and the Courts.

By way of a few examples:

August 2012: Daily Maverick investigated and exposed the murder of striking miners that the SAPS attempted to cover up as self-defence. A Commission of Enquiry was established.

October 2016: Daily Maverick bust the SARS ‘Rogue Unit’ narrative and proved that KPMG were complicit in a dirty tricks campaign to discredit Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan. Moreover, Daily Maverick proved that the Sunday Times reporting was compromised (they later apologized to the Minister).

June 2017: Daily Maverick investigated and highlighted the GuptaLeaks. Daily Maverick uncovered 71 exposes into State Capture proving the extent to which the Gupta brothers controlled South African politics. Many public and private sector officials resigned and Cyril Ramaphosa rode an anti-corruption ticket to claim the ANC’s, and country’s, presidency by a tiny margin.

March 2018: Zuma’s appointee as SARS Commissioner, Tom Moyane, was suspended by President Ramaphosa following a series of DM investigations exposing his role in the cover-up of the Makwakwa affair and other illicit dealings whilst head of SARS. This followed Makwakwa’s initial suspension based on DM’s work.

Late in 2018, Scorpio uncovered the fraudulent dealings of Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu and the EFF itself as they joined the local corrupt government officials and other opportunists in a feeding frenzy over the VBS Bank carcass.

This comes at a price. DM is not financially viable and needs constant funding. The Daily Maverick is available for free. This obviously makes it broadly accessible, but costly in that a major potential revenue stream is lost. Whilst they have some advertising revenue, they are heavily dependent on donations.

Investigative journalism is very expensive. Whistleblowers are marginalised after coming forward, often with serious financial implications to go along with the usual physical security threats. Daily Maverick also tries to raise funding for their safety and legal aid, which can include relocation out of the country. The GuptaLeaks would never have happened had the safety and security of the whistleblower not been pre-arranged. The GuptaLeaks investigation alone cost over R 10 million – a very small sum to save South Africa!

Through its work, Daily Maverick is often threatened with legal action – it comes with the territory. They rely on the quality of their work as protection as there is almost no budget for adequate legal cover (although they do benefit from some ‘pro Deo’ legal work).

Daily Maverick’s investigative unit is housed in a separate not-for-profit vehicle which has Public Benefit Organisation status (PBO) from SARS. It employs a team of dedicated investigative journalists and interns who are part of a training program. They collaborate with other investigative outlets like amaBunghane and syndicates through to further media platforms like EWN, News24, eNCA and others when applicable.

Daily Maverick has no political agenda and is aligned to no ideological standpoint other than its commitment to report the truth without fear or favour.

By way of a few examples:

August 2012: Daily Maverick investigated and exposed the murder of striking miners that the SAPS attempted to cover up as self-defence. A Commission of Enquiry was established.

On 30^th October 2009, Daily Maverick launched. Since then they have had some significant milestones as an online news publisher, many of which occurred in 2018. They surpassed 100,000 subscribers to their First Thing newsletter; their Editor-in-Chief, Branko Brkic was awarded the prestigious Nat Nakasa journalism award and the Daily Maverick team, along with their colleagues at amaBhungane and News24, were awarded the Taco Kuiper award, and many others..

The power of the Internet and global social connection was supposed to be used for good and the benefit of the human kind. We somehow forgot that the same power could be developed into a terrifying force, weaponised to ruin things we hold dear.

Truth itself is now under attack from all sides. Truth is not truth. Red is Blue. Up is Down. Good is Bad. Less is More. And facts can be alternative.

Poorly paid & barely protected, journalists are sometimes the last line in the defence of democracy, fairness, or future. We live in a time where Presidents are literally calling journalists an enemy of the people and harassment of journalists is all too common. Journalists all over the world are under attack, both verbally and physically.

Big business shied away from supporting Daily Maverick because we were “too political”. Their response: Imagine if we weren’t.

Scorpio’s work continues to be the most sensitive and, in many ways, the most significant with reverberations so far reaching that not even we can know for certain where they will finally settle.

Whistleblowers and Back-a-buddy

The catalyst for #GuptaLeaks was the brave actions of two people who supplied Scorpio with the hard drive containing 200,000 e-mails by the Gupta lieutenant, Ashu Chowla. As part of the entire massive #GuptaLeaks project, Scorpio had a moral and professional duty to first ensure the safety of the whistleblowers. The whistleblowers were relocated out of South Africa and Scorpio has now started a fundraising initiative with Back-a-buddy to continue covering their ongoing costs. We salute the #GuptaLeaks whistleblowers - without them, South Africa of today would have been a desperate place.

Connecting the dots between the beginning of an investigation and the impact the story has had on a national, community or personal level is sometimes difficult to do. Often they are asked after a story breaks, “why has nothing happened so far?”. It must be stressed that their job is to uncover the truth and relay it to the public. From there, it’s the duty of those in power to act on what has been revealed.

In 2018, their stories had a great impact on our society.

Their investigative unit, Scorpio, made massive inroads into the catacombs of State Capture. In the process, Tom Moyane and Jonas Makwakwa, SARS' No 1 and 2, lost their jobs.
The global firms, like Hogan Lovells, KPMG, Bain & Co, Gartner, McKinsey were exposed as State Capture's willing executioners.
The massive corruption within SITA and SAPS was unearthed. As a result, the entire evidence management system was held hostage for few days, but all ended well.
Many a law firm representing the Guptas, it turned out, was more than happy to help beyond what the law firms should be allowed to do.
In Stealing the Crust series, they exposed how corrupt community leaders teamed up with big business to keep the communities living on the richest platinum deposits on earth, poor and sometimes desperate.
The former Free State premier and the current ANC Secretary-General, Ace Magashule, was exposed as involved in stealing a valuable painting from the Free State government.
They started presenting in-depth profiles of the Gupta's closest enablers, a process which will last for many years to come.
The Secretary of the Parliament's extravagant spending and obsession with armed security was exposed (he is now suspended)
ACSA's long term irregular spending was probed.
And finally, in the wake of the VBS report, they uncovered the many links between the failed Limpopo bank and the EFF leadership, which enriched the party whose main plank is the fight against corruption – as long as it involves someone else, it turns. This particular series of exposes earned the reporter, Pauli van Wyk, many death threats.
Rebecca Davis and Haji Mohammad Daji’s story, Lut’s People: The Struggle to be Gay and Muslim in South Africa had an enormous impact on a community level. It was named as one of the International Women’s Media Foundation’s top 18 stories from 2018 (#18in18). More significantly, however, they were informed by two Muslim clerics that the feature had prompted both debate and soul-searching within their respective mosques.

Daily Maverick’s Internship Programme

At a time when newsrooms around the country are cutting back, Daily Maverick is committing to the development of young journalists. In 2018, their managing editors Janet Heard and Jillian Green launched the Daily Maverick Internship Programme. They welcomed 6 interns in total - 3 in Cape Town and 3 in Johannesburg. With a retention strategy as a major goal of the programme, we were delighted to offer full time employment to 2 talented interns.

2018 Awards:

2018 Nat Nakasa Journalism Award Winner: Daily Maverick editor Branko Brkic, with a special commendation to the Daily Maverick Scorpio investigative team, along with amaBhungane and News24.

Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism: Daily Maverick, amaBhungane and News24

SAFTA for Best Documentary Short: Chronicle

Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards:

Coming on the heels of being the overall winner at the 2017 Vodacom awards, our 2018 category winners included:

Western Cape Politics Category winner: Marianne Merten

Gauteng Investigative category winner: Pauli van Wyk

Western Cape Sports category winner: Leila Dougan

Multi-Platform category winner: Chronicle

SAB Awards

SAB Digital Video Media Sports Award Winner: Leila Dougan.

SAB sports award for Digital Media in the Written category winner: Antoinette Muller

Sikuvile Standard Bank

Investigative Journalism Award Winner: The #GuptaLeaks team: Daily Maverick, amaBhungane and News24

The Chevrah Kadisha is the oldest Jewish organisation in Johannesburg and the largest Jewish welfare organisation on the African continent.

Established in 1888, during Johannesburg’s pioneer gold rush years, the Chev has been taking care of the welfare and burial needs of the community for 130 years. From inception it provided a paternal, protective and unifying influence and accepted the leadership role in developing the community.

Over the years the Chev has been called upon to broaden the scope of its responsibilities beyond welfare and burial to incorporate caring for people who are aged, disabled, mentally ill, vulnerable and helpless as well as children in need of protection. This means providing food, accommodation, health care, counselling, protected employment and educational support to those who lack means and/or are unable to care for themselves.

As the economic climate becomes more challenging, an increasing number of people are turning to the Chev for financial help for school fees, rent, food and healthcare. Inevitably, financial demands put strain on relationships and this, in turn, manifests in more families turning to the Chev for social services: marriage counselling, parenting skills training, divorce mediation, depression and assistance with drug and alcohol dependency.

Mandate

They are entrusted by the Jewish community to protect and care for those unable to care for themselves. To this end they commit to providing housing, sustenance and healthcare to people who are old, sick, disabled, mentally ill, poor and helpless.

The vast scope of their services makes it likely that every Jewish family in the city is touched, in some way, by the work of this multi-faceted Organisation. Support is provided daily through their welfare and burial services and almost 900 residents are accommodated in their various facilities – Sandringham Gardens, Our Parents Home, Arcadia, and their Disabilities Division which includes Selwyn Segal and their two residential mental health homes, Sandringham Lodge and Sandringham Square. In all of these facilities residents are provided with all of their needs – physical, medical, social, emotional and spiritual. Specialised care is offered to disabled and dementia patients as well as those with mental illness.

Care of the aged population comprises, by far, the largest allocation of funds, amounting to 50% of the Chev’s annual budget of R300m. On the welfare side between 2,500 and 3,000 families and individuals are currently assisted every month with food, rent, healthcare and medication. Their Protected Employment programmes offer work to over 250 people. We provide subsidies to Jewish school children and student loans for tertiary education. In 2018 we have seen an increase of 26% in educational assistance and this figure is expected to continue to rise. As indicated above, their counselling services offer emotional support in all kinds of situations from divorce and substance abuse to depression and statutory interventions.

At Arcadia all the children are Children’s Court placements and housed with them to protect them from neglect and abuse. The residential section is currently full and a large and growing number of children identified as being “at risk” attend Arcadia’s Day Care programme through which they are supervised and monitored in an effort to ensure that the family unit can remain intact. Simultaneously parents are taught parenting skills to ensure that the children are safe from neglect and/or abuse. Healthcare and lifesaving emergency surgical procedures are funded for those without medical aid or resources. Their24-hour Emergency Services provide trauma response, counselling and cemetery services around the clock. The Chev conducts between 500 – 600 funerals each year. Those who can pay for the service are expected to, while people who are destitute and without family are provided with the identical service as everyone else at the Chev’s expense.

The Chev has recently introduced a Holocaust Survivors In-Home Service programme. There are not many Nazi victims remaining in Johannesburg but those who are here (about 30 people) are aged and in need of both physical and emotional support. The Chev provides drivers to transport them to appointments they need to attend; assists them financially and encourages socialisation to reduce their isolation. We are available to improve their quality of life and, in any way that we can, to ease any suffering they may experience.

Mental illness is a growing concern in the community, greatly exacerbated by the severe lack of State psychiatric facilities. The Chev already houses almost 100 mentally ill people in facilities on campus but the number of people needing care is growing and we are not equipped to deal with patients in need of hospitalisation. While the State hospitals turn them away for lack of beds, their professional staff are seeking creative solutions to address this crisis. At Selwyn Segal a secure isolation ward has been established to temporarily contain and calm patients who are disruptive to other residents and who can place their own safety, and that of others, at risk.

Thousands of people are assisted, supported, comforted and accommodated every day by the Chevrah Kadisha. In each situation the Chev’s purpose is to improve the quality of life for those who have nowhere else to turn and no one else to turn to.

Structure & Budget

The Chev runs at an annual budget in excess of R300m and is dependent upon the generosity of donors both locally and internationally to collect R180m through fundraising. It incorporates four major organisations and provides services under nine banners:

Organisations:

Sandringham Gardens (incorporated into the Chev in 2000), is home to over 500 elderly people
Our Parents Home (incorporated into the Chev in 2001), houses over a 100 elderly residents and has a specialised Alzheimer’s ward.
Arcadia Children’s Home (incorporated in 2002) is a place of safety, caring for the all-inclusive needs of 70 children at risk of abuse and neglect and in need of protection.
Selwyn Segal (incorporated 2005) cares for 120 physically and intellectually disabled people.

Services:

Financial Assistance Welfare Services
Residential Services – apart from the residential facilities owned by the Chev, people in need are housed in suitable accommodation at the Group’s expense.
Education Support Services – approximately R6 million is paid out annually to assist students of all ages.
Protected Employment Services – 250 people are provided with sheltered employment at their various facilities.
Social Services – counselling is provided for marriage, divorce, depression, family relationships and substance abuse. Statutory intervention is mandated when a person becomes a danger to themselves or others.
Emergency Services – available 24/7: trauma response, burial services and crisis counselling.
Bridal Services – assisting young couples with the costs of setting up home.
Healthcare Services – are available at the Sandringham Gardens Medical Centre and the Community Outpatients Department. Funding for emergency life-saving surgical procedures is provided.
Burial Services – every Jew is buried in exactly the same way according to Jewish Law with the identical coffin and tahara. No-one is ever refused burial for financial reasons and the Chev absorbs all costs for indigent people without family.

About

We are one of South Africa's largest and oldest private foundations, having been established in 1971. A South African by birth, Sir Donald Gordon is the founder and benefactor of The Donald Gordon Foundation. He is also a benefactor of British institutions and other charities including the Royal Opera House and the Welsh Millennium Centre.

What We Do

The Foundation

The purpose of the Foundation is to make donations "to or for the benefit of any public benefit organisation approved by the Commissioner: South African Revenue Services in accordance with section 10(1)(cN) read together with section 30 of the Income Tax Act of 1962, as amended.”

A ‘public benefit organisation' means any organisation of a public character which is a company formed and incorporated under section 21 of the Companies Act, 1973 (Act No. 61 of 1973), or a trust or an association of persons; and of which the sole object is subject to certain conditions, to carry on one or more public benefit activities in a non-profit manner in the Republic of South Africa.

In short, South African law entitles us to fund any of the following activities which, having regard to the needs, interests and well-being of the general public, have been determined by the Minister of Finance to be of a philanthropic or benevolent nature for the purposes of Section 30 of the Income Tax Act. Within these fields, the Foundation directs its grantmaking to those areas that it identifies as being of interest. We currently make grants, on a selective basis, to:

Higher education institutions with a particular (but not exclusive) focus on business education.
Medical education and training.
Cultural affairs and the performing arts.
Human Rights, the Rule of Law and the safegaurding of the South African Constitution
Human welfare with a particular focus on the poor and needy in the South African Jewish community.

General Notes

All of the Foundation's grantmaking has a South African focus. Whilst we do not fund organisations outside South Africa we do co-operate with international organisations that have an interest in the region. We recognise the importance of internationalisation and globalisation but, sadly, Southern Africa's needs are such that even if we had infinitely more resources than we do local needs could never be met.

The Foundation is absolutely clear about its priorities so as to save prospective grantees from wasting their valuable time and scarce resources in preparing proposals for rejection.

We neither encourage nor generally consider unsolicited proposals. Should you feel compelled to ignore this reality, a short letter setting forth the need, the nature, and the amount of the request and the justification for it would, as a matter of courtesy, be considered. Applicants must recognise, however, that the Foundation is proactive and we have our own programmes and projects. We are not reactive and it is very rare that we make a grant in response to an unsolicited proposal, even if it falls within our defined areas of interest.

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us and we are committed to keeping your personal information secure and confidential. As the party responsible for your personal information (that we might collect and maintain from you) we need to bring to your attention our POPIA manual. A link to this can be found at the bottom of this page

What we do not fund

We do not fund individuals, no matter how deserving. We cannot offer assistance to individuals for medical care, study, scholarships or fellowships even if their applications fall within our defined areas of interest.
We do not fund the organisation of conferences, seminars or symposiums nor do we fund travel thereto or attendance thereof.
We do not support fundraising events. Banquets, Golf Days, Dinners, Premieres and the like may be an excellent way for NGOs to raise funds from the general public and non-traditional donors but we do not participate in them.
Similarly, we do not support centralised or generic fundraising or service organisations. Whilst we respect the work of Community Chests, Rotary, Round Table, Lion's, Bnai Brith and the like, we feel that they should focus their efforts on the general public rather than tap into the relatively small pool of funds in South African foundations, whether corporate or private.
We do not fund sports events, sporting facilities or sports clubs except for sports for the disabled.
We do not fund adult literacy or numeracy training programmes.
We do not fund organisations dealing with issues related to land or housing.
We do not contribute to endowment funds.
We do not make any loans nor do we fund micro-lenders.
We do not assume the duties of the government. Whilst we co-operate with the state we believe that our grantmaking should be supplemental and enhance or add value to their expenditure. Consequently, we do not build schools or fund primary health care. Were we to do so we would, in effect, be paying secondary voluntary taxes and undermining the foundations of accountability upon which a functioning civil society rests.
We are prepared to operate at the cutting edge and to consider pioneering projects that would, perhaps, be too risky for the government to fund with public money.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa enshrines the world's finest Bill of Rights. In terms of section 9(3) of the Constitution we would not support an organisation that unfairly discriminates, directly or indirectly, against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

Contacting Us

Applicants must recognise, however, that the Foundation is proactive and we have our own programmes and projects. We are not reactive and it is very rare that we make a grant in response to an unsolicited proposal, even if it falls within our defined areas of interest. Please read the About us section for a clear list of what is within our scope of consideration.

TheDonald Gordon Foundation