Economic Inclusion
We place a particular focus on youth entrepreneurs with the possibility to link to the value chain today or in the future.
Bizniz in a Box
Bizniz in a Box is dedicated to creating opportunities to integrate the youth into the economy. The aim is to contribute toward revitalising the township economy and supporting the country’s development agenda.
CCBSA retained its level 1 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) status due to strategic investments in amongst others, procurement which saw an increased spend with black-owned suppliers from 50% to just over 61% of its total adjusted procurement spend, of which 34% is with black females.
In a bid to reduce unemployment in South Africa, together with our partners, have to date trained over 700 young entrepreneurs and helped 70 of them take their businesses to the next level, through its Youth Empowerment Programme. This is a public-private partnership which aims to identify entrepreneurial youngsters who have the potential to create sustainable, growing businesses.
CCBSA runs a number of educational programmes, including the Study Buddy Fund, launched in 2021 and which has assisted a number of deserving young people across communities in which CCBSA has operations, to access tertiary education. The Fund pays for full tuition, accommodation fees, as well as textbooks. To date, we have invested over R10 million to support students.
CCBSA’s R20 million-a-year Khulanathi Fund supports black-owned small businesses to help suppliers and SMEs access finance to deliver on existing or new contracts and promote their growth and sustainability.
Study Buddy Fund
In 2021 CCBSA launched the Study Buddy Fund to assist young people across communities in which CCBSA has operations, to access tertiary education. The Fund pays for full tuition, accommodation fees, as well as textbooks as part of a holistic approach to supporting young students.
To date, CCBSA has invested over R8 million to support deserving students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Study Buddy programme also includes support groups, career advice and study hacks to give bursary recipients every opportunity at a successful and rewarding academic career, where they don’t have to worry about how they are going to pay their fees or where their next meal is going to come from.
The Study Buddy Fund comprises four programme pillars:
The Bursary Program provides scholarship support to indigent academically strong students who meet entry requirements at universities. This financial support covers registration, tuition, accommodation, meal allowances and textbooks.
This provides funding to students already at university but who do not have bursaries funded or are not funded through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and are often regarded as the “missing middle”. Of the more than 80 students we have supported to date, half were young women.
This programme targets young people in CCBSA host communities who opt for vocational education and the fund focuses on technical skills development, specifically geared towards the CCBSA value chain i.e. electrical or mechanical engineering.
This E-Learning Using Technology to improve the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science and CCBSA has supported over 6,000 students to date.
The company believes in developing young people into capable leaders of tomorrow, be it in communities, society, business or any other arena of life. “We are determined to invest in them through holistic support programmes that offer tools, including life skills, to assist the student to reach their full potential, said Ratshefola.
Other Sustainability Areas
World Without Waste
Companies such as Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) are a part of the crusade to curb the growing and unnecessary waste pile in local landfills via multilateral collaborations with local communities…
Water Stewardship
The Coca-Cola Water Stewardship Strategy 2030 is based on the reasoning that water is the primary ingredient for the company but that it should not be used at the detriment of communities’ survival.
Local Sourcing
CCBSA has accelerated its preferential procurement transformation plan to shift R3.9 billion weighted procurement spend to black-owned and black women-owned suppliers over three years.
