Social practices

The Group is closely aligned in its approach to transformation and social practices with that of prevailing legislation, which includes inter alia the Labour Relations Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, B-BBEE Act, Employment Equity Act and Skills Development Act.

Training and development

All training and development within the Group is completed under the banner of the Blue Label Academy. A total of 473 e-learning vouchers were purchased by the Group for staff, based on their specific training needs. The e-learning product suite offers modules relating to both business and technical skills. In addition to e-learning, staff are able to attend formal training initiatives at various accredited institutions. The Group spent a total of R3.9 million (2012: R2.7 million) on training in the year under review. The increase in spend is attributed to the focus on developing technological competencies, particularly within the designated group. The Group has appointed a National Technical Training Manager responsible for planning and implementing a targeted technical programme to upskill technicians, while a National Non-Technical Training Manager has been appointed to provide targeted training initiatives aimed at developing leadership skills and business acumen among designated groupings.

Learnerships

The Group places a significant emphasis on learnerships. The Group continues to partner with Bytes People Solutions in the provision and management of the learnership programme. All learners are from the designated group and are allocated to various subsidiary companies based on their particular area of expertise. A total of 31 learners are currently in training throughout the Group (2012: 33 learners). Of the 31 learners, eight are disabled (2012: eight learners). In addition, 64% of the learners are female.

The Group learnership profile is as follows:

Blue Label Telecoms – Group learnership profile

No	Subsidiary	Number of learners	Skill set
1	Cellfind	1	End User Computing disabled female
		2	System Development female
2	Cigicell	1	Technical Support disabled male
		1	Technical Support female
3	Blue Label Distribution	2	End User Computing disabled female
		3	End User Computing disabled male
		6	Technical Support female
		4	Technical Support male
		1	System Support male
		1	System Support female
4	The Prepaid Company	2	End User Computing male
		5	Technical Support female
6	Panacea Mobile	1	End User Computing disabled female
7	Transaction Junction	1	Technical Support female
	Total	31

The Group has also engaged in various other initiatives such as the Techno Girl Programme in partnership with the Department of Education, which provides a female in Grade 9 with work experience in various occupations and skills sets within the Group, through job shadowing within the work environment.

Socio-economic development

The CSI spend is closely linked to the CSI requirements established in the BEE Codes. The CSI spend spans across various beneficiary categories including HIV, youth development, education and sports development and all the amounts exclude VAT.

For the year under review the Group donated R4.2 million (2012: R3.3 million) to various beneficiaries via the Blue Label Chairman’s Fund. The focus of the Group’s investment in SED has remained on HIV/Aids prevention and youth development. Over and above this, the Group has shifted its focus towards education, with the emphasis on funding school fees and educational facilities for children at primary and secondary school level within previously disadvantaged communities.

Staff are encouraged to participate in as many SED initiatives as possible. They attend and host gatherings in various children’s homes and help out with entertainment.

The Group hosted two campaigns in partnership with Reach for a Dream. Twelve terminally ill girls attended a “Queen for a Day” Initiative, held on Valentine’s Day, where a number of female staff pampered the girls. Recently, a number of terminally ill boys were taken on an excursion to the Elephant Sanctuary accompanied by some of the Group’s male staff as part of the “Captain Courage” campaign. Some members of the South African T20 cricket team joined the visit.

The Group also hosted an event to highlight the plight of the rhino and raised over R100 000 for Africa Cries, an NGO focusing on educating youth on the plight of endangered species.

The Group has sustained support for a number of beneficiaries since listing in 2007. These include Malamulele Onward, Soweto Marimba Youth League (SMYLe Trust), Feed SA, Afrika Tikkun.

Enterprise development

The Group maintains its support of identified beneficiaries for enterprise development spend, which in turn has led to greater sustainability within these entities.

ZOK continues to empower entrepreneurs from designated groups within disadvantaged communities by equipping them with fully operational containers that can be used to sell goods and services as a retail solutions provider. TPC provides financial assistance, strategic support and access to key relationships with the major network operators.

Parkrun SA, now in its second year of operation, has over 15 000 registered runners participating at 14 venues across the country. The Group’s support is directed at financial, strategic and human capital input. Cellfind is currently developing a software platform to enable runners to register using USSD capabilities. This means that the large portion of South Africans, who do not have access to a smartphone, will have the ability to register and participate in parkruns countrywide. Parkrun SA recently secured sponsorships from Discovery Vitality and Adidas.

Preferential procurement

The Group continues to actively procure goods and services from B-BBEE certified suppliers.