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Science of social responsibility

South Africa's education system is in trouble. Nearly 14 years after apartheid ended, the country's learners have some of the worst scores in the world when it comes to reading, as well as maths and science literacy. In a maths and science study, grade eights came bottom out of 50 countries.

The future of SA's education lies in CSI

Government has come a long way with the South African education system since the country's democratisation in 1994, especially in terms of developing legislation aimed at addressing past imbalances. It has also made great strides in taking education forward with new curricula designed to serve the economy.

Rebuilding a schooling system

With most schools in rural areas facing abject poverty, overcrowding, lack of resources and facilities, the cry for help is loud and desperate. Rural children want to compete on an equal footing with their urban brothers and sisters. Anglo American South Africa has answered this call with its Rural Schools Programme aimed at ameliorating the situation in Limpopo.

Scenarios for all seasons

Taking inspiration from the seasons, Metropolitan Holdings has developed an innovative strategy to battle HIV/Aids at grassroots level. Using the Doyle model -- an actuarial tool developed by MD Peter Doyle to project the demographic effect of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa -- Metropolitan has created "seasonal" scenarios that predict South Africa's HIV/Aids future.

In pursuit of equality

When Gender Links was started six years ago, everyone involved knew it was not going to be an overnight success. They knew mindsets on gender and how women are portrayed in the media are not altered quickly. They also understood that time is a crucial ingredient to the process of change. But their commitment to gender issues led to the establishment of one of South Africa's premier gender organisations.

Comprehensive wellness

As HIV/Aids makes inroads into South Africa's skills base, more companies are waking up to the idea of investing in employees through an innovative and comprehensive workplace programme. The New Clicks Group launched its Employee Wellness Programme (EWP) in September last year, after years of fine- tuning the programmme.

Commemorating history

On June 16 1976 high school students in Soweto protested against their poor education. The date became engraved in South Africa's struggle history and will be remembered as one of the turning points in the country's history. When the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) decided to commemorate the day through a new "June 16 Trail", it also created a new legacy for communities inside Soweto that led to job creation and enterprise development

Bringing law to people (and animals)

In the real world justice is mainly for the wealthy. Do you have a spare R1 000 an hour for lawyer's fees? This is not even what the top firms charge their corporate clients. And what of the lawyers themselves? They might have entered the profession dreaming of striving for justice and defending the innocent, but end up stuck in plush corporate offices helping the rich get richer.

For the common good

Gerald Leissner was awarded a special commendation by the investing judges for his contribution to poverty and inequality alleviation in Southern Africa. "It is the application of the South African government's BEE policy that singles out his contribution to poverty alleviation," they said. "With his company, he used a government policy to harness the power of the market to produce significant social good."

Hedging South Africa's future

Best known as a firm of savvy asset managers, Allan Gray recently completed a smart financial manoeuvre, involving the personal generosity of its founder, to create a vehicle for BEE. When this transaction is combined with the intended staff-share scheme, 27% of Allan Gray will be black-owned.