Corporate social responsibility practices of local companies in the context of Southern African Customs Union

In this thesis 13 Southern African indigenous companies' CSR practices are investigated. These 13 indigenous companies belong to the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU), SACU is a trade union that consists of five countries, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa. This selection was done based on the fact that in CSR Africa, companies that are being analysed are Multinational companies and most of these companies are from the Petro-chemical sectors and the mining industry (Hinson & Ndhlovu 2011: 333). This means that Southern African based companies are excluded in the CSR discussions. Furthermore companies from other sector besides mining are not given adequate attention, thus this thesis will include other sectors such as, the food and beverages industry, textile industry, banking, retail industry and telecommunication industry. It may be argued that the exclusion of Southern African indigenous companies in CSR discussion may hinder the growth of Southern African societies. The results show that all the companies selected for this analysis have invested in philanthropic initiatives. It is also revealed in the research that 10 companies have recorded that they observe employees' rights. Due to the changing climate conditions most companies are forced to show concern for the environment. There are 9 companies reporting on their green initiatives and most companies that do invest in environmental preservation have excess funds and rely on the natural environment for raw materials. The lowest recordings were in the market relations initiatives and anti-corruption. All the companies did not show interest in protecting animal rights. It is also noticed that companies that are listed on the local stock exchange are the ones who report on their corporate governance. It can be concluded that it is because the stock exchange requires the companies to include corporate governance. It has been recommended that companies should invest more on animal protection as it adds to the tourism industry which will late improve the economy and buying power. But most important they should take anticorruption initiatives seriously because corruption is counterproductive. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Local companies, Southern African Customs Union, Philanthropy, Environmental management, Sustainability, human Rights and Stakeholders.