Donors, make sure hunger donations are spent in the Vaal!
"Hunger relief donations or contributions raised in or from the Vaal Triangle must go directly to residents and not become de facto disinvestment spent outside Gauteng’s poorest region," says Klippies Kritzinger, veteran philanthropist and business activist and CEO of the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC).
Business and personal economic devastation caused by Covid-19 lockdown is immense and a variety of hunger relief efforts have sprung up in the Vaal Triangle recently – but not all operate on a sustainable and best practice basis.
But funding raised from Vaal Good Samaritans is not always spent on the Vaal region and is often not subject to credible and impartial financial control, says organised business. This phenomenon is now in danger of becoming a serious form of disinvestment from the Vaal region especially since cash and other donations of food and clothing are a limited resource and come from open-hearted farmers, businesses and individuals themselves under huge pressure.
That’s the view of Kritzinger, who has been seen in the length and breadth of the townships and suburbs throughout the Vaal Triangle since the Covid-19 disaster struck, was responding to growing concern over where and how donations were distributed and to what extent residents benefited directly.
A central concern is transparency and whether funds or other donations contributed are not largely used for so-called administration and management costs – a factor which affects humanitarian operations throughout the world.
“The GTCoC really urges our open-handed and generous donors to first assess whether the organisation or individual they donate to can actually do what they say they are going to do with your money or donation – what is their actual capacity and are there credible controls in place so that as much as possible actual relief goes to people on the ground and ?
“Wherever possible go and physically check whether the person or organisation you are donating to actually has an infrastructure to walk their talk as cost-effectively as possible.
“The key principle for the GTCoC is that everything that is raised in the Vaal or for the Vaal must go directly to the Vaal Triangle and its residents.
“And make sure donations are also used to buy whatever is needed from local small and medium businesses wherever possible,” says Kritzinger.
