Rich give billions to charity

Rich South Africans are doling out more for charitable causes than the top 200 companies combined.

Nine out of 10 of the country's high-net-worth individuals gave away some of their money, time or goods last year, revealed a report released by Nedbank yesterday.

"Our rich compatriots donated R8-billion in cash alone last year," Noxolo Hlongwane, philanthropy specialist at Nedbank Private Wealth, said yesterday. "That is on top of the R5.1-billion in goods and services and the 7.9million hours of their time they gave up."

"The 200 largest companies spent R6.9-billion on corporate social investment," Hlongwane said.

The report looked at individuals who earn more than R1.5-million a year or have R5-million worth of investible assets. There are about 300000 of these, Nedbank said.

One of them, mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, said his family would donate half its fortune to charity. The R500-million pledged to community development will start rolling out this month, the Motsepe Foundation said.

Many donors prefer to operate under the radar, Hlongwane said.

As many as 7% of those polled by Nedbank Wealth said they gave more than R100000 last year.

About 63% of the donors gave less than R25000.

Individuals tend to give to the sick, the elderly and orphanages, said Hlongwane, while more than 40% of company donations were education-related.

Some of the top donors include the Oppenheimer family, Bertie Lubner, Allan Gray, Christo Wiese, Ben Rabinowitz, Francois van Niekerk and the Rupert family, according to Shelagh Gastrow, an executive director of Inyathelo: the South African Institute for Advancement. - Additional reporting by Sipho Masombuka