SA Taxi Foundation is the corporate social investment arm of SA Taxi, an essential extension of our commitment to real economic freedom with sustainable intervention.
Established in January 2014, the intention of the Foundation is to give effect to our broader commitment to active citizenry, focused on the fact that most of South Africa remains limited in its access to basic human needs and will not realise real economic freedom without intervention.
Our Initiatives
The Foundation’s focus has been on education as well as initiatives that stimulate economic activity within communities and assist SA Taxi customers. Thanks to the support of our employees, key partners and the taxi industry, we have directly administered in excess of R9million in project value, with the value expected to increase relative to additional initiatives and partnerships.
Adopt a School
To expand the reach and impact of our initiatives, we launched the Adopt a School initiative in 2019 to focus on foundational education through offering support to underprivileged children in their Early Childhood Development (ECD) phase.
Through this initiative, we adopted a primary school in each province with the help of SANTACO. We have identified the schools’ most immediate needs and through the initiative will focus on addressing these areas as a priority.
We have been able to:
Donate dry sanitation systems to Module Primary School and Mthekelezi Primary School
Raised funds to buy supplies for Module Primary School
Raise funds to buy books for Nellmapius Primary School library
PlayPump
In collaboration with RoundAbout Water Solutions, we funded a PlayPump for the Magogong community in the Northern Cape in February 2019. A PlayPump is powered by children playing on a roundabout placed above a borehole. As the roundabout turns, it triggers a pump to move water from the borehole to a sealed polyethylene tank. The water storage system will ensure a consistent, safe, free supply of water to residents in the drought-stricken area.
The PlayPump will:
Supply clean water
Improve sanitation and hygiene
Reduce waterborne diseases
Improve school attendance – particularly amongst girls
Encourage children to play
Road Safety
In South Africa, pedestrian injury is the leading cause of death in children up to the age of 15 years old – with a marked concentration of incidents in the age group 5-9 years old. Since 2014, we have offered road safety training to thousands of children to mitigate this through a partnership with RTMC.
JB Matabane
In 2015, we adopted JB Matabane Secondary School in Ivory Park and developed a multi-faceted 5-year programme to promote sustainability at the school.
The following programmes were implemented:
A Winter School programme to provide support to Grade 11 and 12 learners
A career empowerment programme to help learners find the right career fit in partnership with Career ID
A leadership and development programme to support the principal with Partners for Possibility.
Following the implementation of the Winter School programme:
School record showed 100% attendance from the learners;
Increase in the 2018 Grade 12 pass rate (84% from 69% in 2017)
6 learners from JB Matabane obtained Learnerships at TBWA, one of the Career ID clients
50 learners were invited to a workplace orientation program by SA Taxi’s parent company, Transaction Capital and they were given an assessment to complete as a means to identify suitable talent to fill positions within the company at different levels.
Mobile Libraries
Of the 24 000 registered public primary schools in South Africa, only 1900 have functioning libraries. SAPESI shares our belief that the provision of educational resources is an investment in the future of South Africa, and that reading is the basis of all learning. We partnered with SAPESI whose main aim is to improve literacy and numeracy in primary schools, thus narrowing the education gap in South Africa. They supply Mobile libraries – second-hand low-mileage purpose-built vehicles equipped with bookshelves, carrying up to 6 000 books.
We distributed 50 mobile library buses to 96 school districts around South Africa and also converted two stationary buses into mobile libraries. Annually, the mobile libraries visit 900 primary schools in rural areas. We’ve also given the Mobile library founders office space in our building and donated R100 000 to the NPO to assist the organization with operational costs.
Taxi Donation
In April 2018, we donated a taxi to Ms Makabelo Moeletsane from Ficksburg farm to assist her with a transport project for learners. We also donated a taxi to Mr Msiza, a pastor at Kingdom Power Church International (KPCI) who aims to use it to help community members such as transporting disabled children and senior citizens to healthcare facilities.
The second taxi was donated to Mr. Solly Msiza in December 2018, who is a pastor at Kingdom Power Church International (KPCI). With this taxi he aims to play a major role in community projects such as transporting disabled children and senior citizens to healthcare facilities.
The third vehicle was donated in December 2019 to the Ms Letsane, a widow of Mr Baloyi. Jabulani Baloyi was shot dead at the Pretoria Taxi Rank facility by an alleged drug peddler whom was confronted regarding the illegal activities of selling drugs to the South African youth. The vehicle was donated to Mr. Baloyi’s wife in order to self-sustain together with her kids as the sole bread winner was no more. The request of this taxi donation was a request from the Roads & Transport MEC Mr. Mamabolo.
Refentse
In 2018, we launched Project Refentse, a project aimed at empowering unqualified technicians repairing vehicles at taxi ranks, with formal skills and certification. Following the completion of this project, the mechanics will have the necessary marketable skills, provide a higher value service and earn a steady income. The 10 candidates were identified and nominated by the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) and the National Taxi Alliance (NTA).
