By Bob Kernohan Business Editor
EASTERN Cape businesses stepped forward at the weekend to raise more than R1,2-million in funds in a single evening to launch a new programme to help the poor, the sick and families hit by disasters in the province.
Championed by Premier Nosimo Balindlela, Project of Hope is aimed at combining the strengths of government and private enterprise “to bring better lives to the poor of the Eastern Cape”, she told the launch banquet on Friday night.
“We have come here tonight to carry on burying the negatives of the province,” Balindlela told the function, attended by more than 500 local and national business people and senior provincial government representatives, including MECs and MPs, at the Feather Market Centre. Many of them had bought expensive tickets for the glittering occasion.
“Businesses, some small and others major companies, have bought into the Project of Hope with the government to beat poverty in an example of how the public and private sectors are working together to make life in the Eastern Cape better.
“It is an example of what can be done in South Africa and on our continent to overcome poverty,” she said.
Project of Hope will use the funds in times of natural disaster, for HIV/Aids orphans and to assist abused women and children. They could also help poor students continue their studies, said Balindlela.
The biggest donation to start off the project was R500 000 from First National Bank. A further R700 000 was pledged by other companies and raised in an auction at the function.
A local businesswoman spent R35 000 to buy breakfast with Balindlela, said FNB public banking sector provincial director Sabatha Mbalekwa. “All in all, proceeds exceeded the R1,2-million target we had set for the evening,” said Mbalekwa.
The premier had asked FNB to act as a trustee of the fund and to exercise a fiduciary role in the administration of the funds, said Mbalekwa.