There are some schools in South Africa that are never going to struggle for cash.
You have to sell off a few organs to send your kids through the likes of Hilton and Michaelhouse (the latter is in excess of R265 000 PER YEAR), and other schools have seriously cashed up past pupils to bolster their coffers.
Shout out to Elon Musk, who gave his old school in Pretoria R1 million and told them never to contact him again.
The latest donation under the microscope comes via disgraced Steinhoff philanderer Markus Jooste, who sent a cool R10 million to Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, better known as Affies, having matriculated there in 1978.
So, what does one do with the cash, given what has come out since the donation was handed over? Here’s Business Insider SA:
To mark the 100 year anniversary of the school coming up in 2020, old boys set up the Affie 100 Fonds (Afrikaans for fund) and called for donations.
The fund was set up and is run independent of the school, as a community project for the benefit of the school. It aims to make donations for specific projects to maintain Affies as as top-tier school, and prepare it for the next 100 years.
The fund this week told Business Insider South Africa that Jooste had made a donation in his personal capacity. There was no evidence that the money had come from Steinhoff.
Yet the fund is playing it safe.
“Right now we have no facts to say that [the donation] was improper, but we made a prudent management decision,” says fund spokesperson Bernard du Plessis.
The money has been transferred to a separate, interest-earning account. Trustees have decreed it will only be used once and if they are satisfied it is not encumbered – either by law or perception.
A clawback of money if Jooste is sequestrated is one risk the trust is guarding against, Du Plessis said. Association with money earned in an undesirable way is another.
Du Plessis would not speculate on what the trust would do if it found ethical problems with the money, but had no clear government or institution to give it to.
Nice to rack up the interest on that R10 million while you’re waiting to make a call on the matter.
I suppose they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
[source:businsider]
