Typical of such support, Illovo’s own employees have involved themselves in the welfare of the
crèche and children by participating in the maintenance projects, contributing toys and clothes
and raising funds and organising special events for the children such as the Christmas party held
in December 2014. A computer and printer has provided the staff of the crèche to capture vital
administrative information;
Illovo, together with its logistic partners, Barloworld, has, in a joint venture with the
Pietermaritzburg municipality, also commenced a project to upgrade the local soccer stadium and
sports field to provide a safe and healthy venue at which to support healthy exercise and
competition; and
From an employment perspective, 15 people from the Sobantu village have been appointed into
permanent positions, while 10 people have been given temporary work.
During the year under review, the group spent approximately R289 million on the provision of social
benefits to our employees, such as accommodation and amenities, health care, educational assistance
and community projects, as reported in the Human Capital report which is on our website
). Given challenges of poverty, lack of infrastructural development, non-delivery of
basic services including health and education, and the rural location of our operations, there is significant
‘below-the-line’ transfer of employee benefits to local communities across the regional footprint of the
countries in which we operate.
OUTGROWER DEVELOPMENT
We work closely with local indigenous farmers through our established cane grower development
programmes, to improve their participation in the respective country’s mainstream economies and to
benefit both the farmers and the company by improving cane yields and quality, enabling the growers to
boost their income while ensuring sustainable cane supply to the mills. In total, more than R27 million
was spent on supporting and developing outgrowers across the group.
