Sustainability report

 

 

Chris Venter, Chief Executive Officer 
     

 

Foreword from the Group CEO

As sustainability issues gain momentum in South Africa, companies realise that they cannot be truly successful while surrounding communities face poverty, hunger and environmental degradation. More and more investors and shareholders are holding companies accountable for their business, community and environmental practices. Media coverage of poor business, community and environmental practices has increased.

AFGRI is committed to creating value for all its stakeholders. This is just one of the many reasons for approaching business with a sustainability perspective. In this report, we share with our stakeholders how AFGRI addresses environmental and social issues through our business, community and environmental practices. Sustainability is one of the core principles of AFGRI’s business strategy and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

The following areas are covered in this report:
1. Management and development of human capital
2. Health and safety
3. Stakeholder engagement
4. Corporate social responsibility
5. Black economic empowerment
6. Environmental management

Management and development of human capital

Training and development
Employees are the cornerstone of AFGRI’s success. Ongoing training and development assists employees to realise their full potential, fulfill their aspirations and contribute to AFGRI’s value creation. AFGRI has developed and implemented a corporate policy for employee training and development which emphasises the following:
  • Objectives
  • Target group
  • Procedures

The training and development performance data for the year is:

Training indicator 2008/9     2007/8  
Average number of training days per employee per annum 10     8  
Number of employees receiving annual training and development review 589     487  
Average amount spent on training per employee per annum R2 460     R2 875  

During the year, AFGRI supported third-party development programmes and conducted its own training courses. These included:
  • The Training Outside Public Practice (TOPP) training programme for financial accountants to obtain the Chartered Accountant (SA) qualification. Currently four candidates are permanently employed.
  • Every commodity trader is developed through a programme of training courses.
  • The Handling and Storage division provided various training interventions. These included maize, soya and sunflower grading, customer service management and silo operations and management.
  • AFGRI pays for or provides for continuing professional development training of employees, based on their profession’s requirements and criteria.
  • Other functional training courses conducted to improve employees’ knowledge of the workplace included: job profile writing; handling discipline and grievances in the workplace; computer literacy; debt counselling; occupational health and safety; project management; forklift driving; and first aid. Technical training included tractor training and Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP).
  • Several previously disadvantaged internal candidates have been placed at various branches to gain valuable practical experience and on-the-job training.

Employee relations
A small percentage of the Group’s workforce is covered by collective bargaining agreements. Approximately 1 000 employees are members of the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU). A similar number belong to a variety of other trade unions. The Group has internal procedures and processes for employee relations/workforce consultation in non-unionised settings to cater for the balance of the work force. The Group’s human resources department is responsible for union negotiations and employee relations. There are internal disciplinary and grievance procedures which are communicated to all employees through various mediums.

Equal opportunities
AFGRI has implemented an equal opportunities (diversity) policy. The policy covers the following in terms of the Employment Equity Act: gender, race, religion, age, disability and sexual orientation.

AFGRI workforce composition data: staff complement as at 30 June was

Diversity Indicator % 2009     % 2008  
Female employees 29,7     28,5  
Managerial grade female employees 3,7     3,8  
Managerial black employees 2,2     0,7  


A number of staff members from designated groups have been earmarked to participate in the Group’s succession plan. A development plan has been formulated for each of these staff members to ensure that EE targets at senior levels are met.

All recruitment activities are monitored by the Group’s human resources department. This ensures that EE candidates are shortlisted and interviewed, and managers are advised on the legal and fair recruitment practices and procedures within the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

HIV/AIDS
AFGRI has embarked on an HIV/AIDS intervention project to mitigate the impact of the disease in the Group. The objective of the project is to develop a comprehensive implementable outcomes-based HIV/AIDS workplace programme for all employees.

Health and safety

The Group continually reviews its compliance with relevant provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and monitors all reported accidents involving employees. Each operational site has appointed and trained fire control and first aid personnel. Systems are in place to ensure the health and safety of workers through emergency planning, fire and loss controls.

Group safety performance data:

Period Number of  
accidents  		   Manhours  
worked  
2008/9 (Apr ‘08 – Jun ‘09) 100     1,32 million  
2007/8 (Feb ‘07 – Mar ‘08) 98     1,39 million  


Stakeholder engagement

AFGRI has identified the following stakeholders as key to the business’ long-term sustainability:
  • Shareholders and potential shareholders
  • Customers
  • Employees
  • Suppliers
  • The business community
  • The Government, both national and provincial
  • Communities.

The Group strives to surpass its responsibilities as a listed Company and provide regular feedback to the investment community and other prospective investors.

To facilitate interaction and feedback, AFGRI undertakes various initiatives to learn from and address the interests of each group of the stakeholders. Periodically, the Company conducts customer service surveys to generate customer service indices. In addition, the Company hosts various discussion and advisory forums and study groups with specific categories of customers. This enables AFGRI to share and learn the needs of its stakeholders.

AFGRI is a member of various industry associations. In particular, AFGRI is a member of the Agricultural Business Chamber (ABC), Animal Feed Manufacturers Association, South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Business Unity South Africa and the Afrikaanse Handelse Instituut. Through the ABC, AFGRI interacts with government on various strategic policy issues and participates on various ABC-government projects.