Caption: Unveiling of the new library building at Isibonela Nursery School in Ogies.

The Zest WEG Group recently partnered withTouch Africa and M-Net Cares to build the library at the Isibonelo Nursery School in Ogies, Mpumalanga. The company’s financial donation to this important project is one of the outcomes of a strategic decision to extend the geographic reach of Zest WEG Group’s Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects in order to ensure it participates in projects where the Group has branches and customer footprints.

“Our CSI strategy is firmly entrenched in sustainability,” Jamie Wilson, Zest WEG Group marketing manager, says. “Most of our projects have an internal focus, concentrating on the development of our own people in the form of Adult Basic Education Training (ABET), in-service training, technical learnerships, registrations of Professional Engineers, management advancement programmes and MBA’s.

“From an external perspective, many of our Group’s external CSI initiatives have been initiated in response to requests from our employees, who have been empowered to identify needs within their own communities and thereby become personally involved with the roll-out and sustainability of these projects. The Zest WEG Group also works closely with non-profit organisations like Touch Africa, which focus on social upliftment. “

The Zest WEG Group has been involved in making CSI donations for the past eight years, originally through ad hoc donations and, more recently, via a structured system under the banner of the Group’s corporate Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Strategy.

Touch Africa is involved in the rehabilitation of schools throughout South Africa and, over the past two years, has worked with the Zest WEG Group on two projects in the Gauteng area, including the installation of a Science Laboratory at the Odin Park Primary School. This was an M-Net Cares staff initiative, in which Zest WEG Group participated by becoming a major contributor.

The Isibonelo Nursery School library project was an ideal fit for the M-Net Cares CSI team and the Zest WEG Group that prioritises education-related projects. Touch Africa carried out the project management. The project also attracted interest from additional sponsors, including Pennypinchers Witbank who donated more than R 100 000 worth of building material to this project, and Econorack, Johannesburg, who donated shelving for the library.

“We’re proud to be supporting a project that will benefit hundreds of children in the local community,” Wilson says. “Working on this project was a real eye-opener in terms of the tremendous need that exists among under privileged schools in our country. Zest WEG Group is committed to embarking on similar projects that will serve as catalysts to the progress of young learners.”