Sasria Chairman’s Charity Golf Day to Benefit Golf Development Board and Aids Orphans

“The children and the youth are our future”, says Sasria Executive Mr. Collin Macheke

Johannesburg - Sasria, South Africa’s leading special risks insurer hosted its annual Chairman’s Charity Golf Day on 11 May 2010 at the historic Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead.

The tournament, which was hosted in the name of Chairman Cyril Ramaphosa, will benefit several charities and social development programmes supported by Sasria, most notably the South African Golf Development Board and Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity (Noah).

Participants include business executives, professional golfers and celebrities such as Arnold Geerts, Brian Baloyi, Shaun Bartlett and Norman Mashaba. This golf day is an ideal place for business people to interact whilst honing their golfing skills and in the end charity is the winner. Sasria has also invited the June 16, 1976 stalwarts as Sasria was born out of the events of June 16, 1976.

The state-owned special risk insurer underwriter is already actively involved in the development of the communities. Sasria has recently scooped the Metropolitan Oliver empowerment award as the top Empowered Government Agency & Parastatal Category.

“Of course, we also want to give youngsters who have certain skills and talents the ability to be everything they can be, and that is why we will also be making a contribution to the South African Golf Development Board.” Says Sasria Executive Business Development, Collin Macheke. SAGDP’s aim is to make golfing accessible to all South Africans, and to introduce them to the very real joys of the game. Also, as with all of the other sports development programmes in the country, its aim is to foster individual and community values such as personal integrity, co-operation and mutual respect. These will enable participants to be more than just good golfers, they will also enable them to play an active role in building the secure, sustainable, non-racist, non-sexist and participatory democracy we all dream of.

“Sasria’s key role in special risk management in South Africa means that we are at the forefront of providing risk cover for such extraordinary events as public disorder, labour disturbances, civil unrest, strikes, lock-outs and acts of terrorism,” says Collin Macheke. “That means it is both a business imperative and a social responsibility to identify and educate the men and women who will lead South Africa into the future.”More immediate charitable needs cannot be ignored, though, and that is why some of the proceeds of the golf day will also go to Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity (NOAH).

There are currently 2.5 million orphans in South Africa, approximately half of whom have been orphaned by the Aids pandemic. Many more are classified as vulnerable, and are living in deeply straitened circumstances. Noah  was created in 2000 to address the needs of these children, and its vision is to give them the opportunity to grow up to be physically, emotionally and psychologically healthy.

“To paraphrase the popular song, the children and the youth are our future,” says  Macheke. “At Sasria, our business is about providing security, and we want a secure, happy and successful future for our country’s children and rising academic stars as well.”

For further information on Sasria, visit www.sasria.co.za.