Joining hands in the rehabilitation of first-time offenders

Nedgroup Investments believes that its regular donations to four national charities play a small, yet meaningful role in the upliftment of our community.

One of the charities who benefits is the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders, NICRO. The other organisations that benefit from quarterly donations are Childline, Rape Crisis and Habitat for Humanity. 

Nic Andrew, Head of Nedgroup Investments, says one way to effectively assist NICRO is for all role players to join hands and form effective partnerships. These include civic organisations, organised business, the police, the government, communities, and private security companies.

Andrew says, "Prevention is better than cure when it comes to crime, therefore Nedgroup Investments decided to support NICRO in a meaningful and sustainable way."

One of NICROs major crime prevention programmes focuses on young offenders, and over the years it has had great success in rehabilitating first-time offenders and successfully integrated them in society. Some 25 000 youths are successfully processed annually via the Diversion programme, pioneered by NICRO. NICROs National Chairman, Mr Walter Petersen says, "It is only by forging strong partnerships between civil society, government and the corporate sector that South Africa will make an impact on crime reduction."

Since December 1999, the Nedgroup Investments Renaissance Fund, a unit trust fund managed by Cadiz African Harvest Asset Management in terms of Nedgroup Investments Best of BreedTM asset manager partnering strategy, has contributed more than R2 million (excl. VAT) to the four charities mentioned above. For the quarter to 31 December 2006 almost R141 000 was generated and paid over to these four organisations, and last year alone close on R480 000 was donated by the fund.

The money comes from two sources. Nedgroup Investments donates 60% of the initial fee on investor money flowing into the Nedgroup Investments Renaissance Fund to the four beneficiary organisations. In addition, the fund manager, Cadiz African Harvest Asset Management, and Nedgroup Investments donate 30% of the annual investment management fee.

Andrew explains that the fund works somewhat differently to many other social investment funds, which are often restricted in terms of where they can invest. By contrast, the Nedgroup Investments Renaissance Fund is not limited to certain stocks, so the portfolio can be structured to generate optimal returns. In this way, performance is not jeopardised as investors receive unconstrained investment performance. (The fund returned 29.2% per annum for the three years ending 31 December 2006.*)

"This enables us to provide the best of both worlds, fulfilling the mandate to investors, while contributing to community upliftment without any compromises or conflicts," concludes Andrew.