South Africa – A Country Of Resilience

South African stakeholders from all walks of life, began a process of contributing to its economic recovery. As a resilient country, efforts by community members and organisations have not gone unnoticed. Just over the weekend during Mandela Day, clean-up initiatives were already in motion with many taking to the affected businesses, malls and communities to support each other and reclaim public spaces.

Brand South Africa’s Play Your Part Ambassador and Township Entrepreneurs Alliance (TEA) founder Bulelani Balabala said that the township economy was hit hard but as a key contributor to also ensuring we are successful in economic recovery and through corporate partners’ assistance.

“We are relying on some of our corporate partners to join us in rebuilding township businesses all across the country, that would have been affected by this particular impact”, said Balabala.

Fast-forward to the call by Brand South Africa urging citizens to Play their Part to #protectSouthAfrica and #rebuildSA has seen citizens, government representatives, and CEOs of South Africa’s largest companies and multinationals, come together to working towards the revival of the economy.Inspiring acts of humanity pledged to #rebuildSA included.

Hollywoodbets, a sports betting company based in KZN  pledged a R3 million investment towards the rebuilding and uplifting of communities through its My Community Programme. “We have been united to help one another in the true sense of ubuntu. It is important for us to offer immediate relief and assist with the rebuilding of the communities in which we operate. Our thoughts are with those who have suffered loss or are facing distressing times.” – Hollywoodbets CSI manager Rasigan Naidoo

The Sharks, South African professional rugby union team’s shareholders gave  a substantial contribution from MVM Holdings, pledging  R1 million to help rebuild KZN.“Rebuilding community infrastructure will assist in the creation of jobs. We hope that with a phased approach, we can reach as many people as possible in KZN, alongside the selfless efforts of others who have shown such generosity of spirit, to rebuild this province.”- Sharks CEO Eduard Coetzee

Standard Bank, South African financial services group and Africa’s biggest lender by assets  pledged 15 million to assist NGO’s that operate in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng to provide food and basic necessities to those affected.“

We are staring down a humanitarian crisis. This is the first of a series of relief measure from Standard Bank. We believe it is our responsibility to help those who are suffering during this time of turmoil and will avail funds available as we understand the needs of communities,” – 

Standard Bank South Africa CEO Lungisa FuzileMany other relief donations have gone through the largest disaster response non-governmental organisation the Gift of the Givers who tallied more than R50 million.Brand South Africa salutes the unified efforts by all stakeholders proving once more that we are stronger together and we are South Africa.