Annual Report 2019/2020
July 2020
This report will be focusing on the 2019 Letsatsi Borutho Trust activities as Trustees won’t be able to organise the usual Annual Engagement meetings due to Covid-19 regulations. Unfortunately, the target communities will not have an opportunity to meet with the trustees in person and engage the trustees about the activities in their community. It is well known now that Letsatsi Borutho Trust has been consistently making the annual call for grant proposals since 2016 when the trust was introduced to the communities.
The 2020 Annual General Meeting, planned to be held in Ritchie, had to be cancelled for the current financial year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this report attempts to provide information to all the stakeholders about the interaction of the Trust to the communities within the 50 km radius from the Droogfontein Solar Power plant.
The year 2019 will be remembered as the year in which the Trust realized for the first time its real investment to the community. A call for proposal was issued in April 2019 and 25 grant applications were received, ranging from Enterprises, Non-Profit Organizations and Bursary opportunities were given to Faith-Based Organizations. A total amount of R3, 233 019 was allocated to organizations in Kimberly, Galeshewe, Colville, Barkley West and Platfontein. The Trust advertised a call for proposal for an amount of R3.8 million to be allocated to all approved grant applications. The list of beneficiaries (the organization that were awarded the grant) is attached in the website together with the amount they received.
These organizations were funded in tranches. The payment was activated upon receipt of the quarterly report which was followed by due diligence. This involved the Programme Implementation Manager reviewing the narrative information together with the financial report. We are pleased to share that many organizations are beginning to understand the compliance procedure required to acquire the grant. This requires the organization to demonstrate its commitment to efficiency, structural viability, clear line of accountability and monitoring, upon achieving this, the Trust will make its first step to acknowledge and support the organizations. Regrettably, about 14 applications could not qualify or were declined due to them being outside the 50 km radius operation. Moreover, these organizations failed to demonstrate proper organizational establishment, good governance structure and were not registered with any regulatory authority.
The Trust embarked on a recruitment process for the position of a local Programme Officer, who was appointed in February 2020. The newly appointed programme officer is Keatlaretse Senoamere (Locally known as Kea) from Kimberley. She could not be seen by many organizations as the lockdown was implemented shortly after her appointment.
Bursary Programme
The Trust opened a bursary programme for students aspiring to go to Universities, Nursing Colleges, TVET Colleges etc. An open call to students was made last year. It accommodated students who live within the 50 km radius. The Trust appointed Study Trust to administer the bursary on behalf of the Trust. Trustees then ensured that the approval process was done transparently with the Trustees to make the final approval.
There were 9 beneficiaries in the current academic year, However, one beneficiary has declined the bursary because he has obtained funding from NASFAS. The demographics of the beneficiaries are as follow:
Description Percentage Count
Male 55% 5
Female 45% 4
African 78% 7
Coloured 22% 2
Public Universities 100% 9
All the beneficiaries are studying at public South African universities.
COVID-19 Intervention
The COVID-19 pandemic took us all by surprise at the beginning of the year. In the light of that, the Trust has already allocated in its budget a disaster fund of R400,000 that was set-aside for any eventuality that may occur. When it became clear that the pandemic is disastrous in its nature, the Letsatsi Borutho Trust decided to intervene to alleviate the suffering caused by the pandemic. We resolved to:
• Allow organizations that were allocated a grant by the trust to continue paying the salaries and stipends that were initially allocated.
• Support the organizations that are regarded as essential services to propose budget deviation to accommodate procurement of personal protective equipment as required by regulations.
• Ensure that our Soup Kitchens that were allocated a grant continue to support poor people with food parcels.
• Change strategy for food vouchers. Each family in the respective soup kitchen list will receive a voucher amounting to R700 that will complement the COVID-19 relief grant of R350 that government has afforded people in need.
We are aware that both food parcels and vouchers could not reach all families in need. Our partnership with the Department of Social Development was valuable in this regard, as we submitted our list of beneficiaries to DSD for intervention wherever the Trust could not reach. This programme is a work in progress and will improve and strengthen our partnership with DSD.
