Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2013

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.” Sppech by Prof Nevhutanda Alfred: Chairperson of the National Lottery Board South Africa Robert Frost wrote the poem The Road Not Taken in 1920. And how many times have we heard those words, the road less travelled? … The unexpected choice, the unusual option, the departure from the obvious. How many times has that familiar phrase been spoken, and yet how often do we forget the true challenge of those words? where danger lurks and every shadow contains unknown peril? But first why, when discussing Lottery spending, should we even begin to think in terms of the one less travelled? Why should we be looking for the unexpected or the unusual? Lottery money funds Social programmes and meets a clear and certain need. He pointed out that there are over 90 THOUSAND registered NGO’s in South Africa. Surely this is something upon which we can all agree? Surely this is a place where certainty and clarity of vision are essential? Surely this is a familiar road, with a sure and certain destination? But, as some of you might know, I am a man of faith and sometimes have the great privilege of delivering a sermon. And when we do a verse reading, when we prepare a ‘sermon’, we don’t just look at a single verse, we look at them all; because the message is found within, in-between and behind every line. Every line contains some vital element of the message. So I’ll read it again. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.” In a recent publication, while discussing Social Responsibility spending here in South Africa, my friend Marc Lubner – Chairman of The Smile Foundation and CEO of Africa Tikkun – claimed that NGO’s, Corporate Social Responsibility programmes and Government Social spending is failing in South Africa. Corporate social spending in South Africa exceeds 7 BILLION rand every year. Social spending by government exceeds 20 BILLION. The Philanthropic sector, in South Africa, employs more people than the manufacturing sector. So, that’s 90 thousand organisations, over 27 billion rand, hundreds of thousands of people – all dedicated to addressing South Africa’s social problems, all working to serve their various causes, to meet the different social needs they care most about, all determined to make life better for the people who they have decided most need their help. And yet can any one of us really say that what we are doing is working? Can anyone of us claim that things are getting better? The one less travelled, yes there’s comfort in the familiar. But if you’ll indulge me for just a few moments, let’s take a look at the other two lines. Two roads diverged in a wood … So, are we in a wood? And if so, is it a happy place, full of dappled light and the soft singing of birds? Or is it a dark and forbidding woods; the kind of place Can any one of us look at where we have come from and the challenges we face today and say that we are walking through pleasant woods, surrounded by the singing of birds and soft, warming sunlight? And, if we think this well-travelled road is difficult to navigate now, how much more difficulty will it become as the international financial crisis continues to bite and we all have to work with less … and make it go further and further every day? CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW Magazine Final.indd 51 51 2013/07/29 10:47 AM

Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2013 | Page 53