19 Nov Safire Insurance partners with Cordwalles Prep and Amathuba again

Seen here are (from left to right) Khanya Ngobese (Safire), Nomfundo Khowane (Safire), Zethembiso Msomi (Safire), Mbali Mkhulisi (Safire) and Hlengiwe Mdlangathi (Brokoop).

On Friday 24 October, 95 staff members from Safire Insurance, Shackleton Risk Management, and Brokoop Insurance Brokers planted 60 indigenous trees in a local school’s forest. Pupils from Safire’s scholarship programme took part, along with Richard Robertson from Cordwalles, who also mentors with the Amathuba Foundation. The event, in celebration of September’s Arbour Month, united Safire, Cordwalles and the Amathuba Foundation yet again.

Safire’s scholarship programme, one of many community and social-development initiatives that Safire has started over the years, focuses on providing quality, multi-faceted education for outstanding youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds, ensuring they are enrolled at some of the country’s top schools. The scholarship programme, launched in 2014, initially worked solely with the well-respected Cordwalles Preparatory School for Boys, situated opposite Redlands Estate in Pietermaritzburg where the Safire House head office is located.

In time, as the first group of scholarship boys excelled and their future senior schools were considered, some of the country’s premier high schools such as Maritzburg College, Michaelhouse and Durban High School joined the programme (both Cordwalles and Michaelhouse currently feature on the Spear’s Schools Index of the world’s leading private schools). The scholarship process begins with promising Grade 4 pupils passing stringent interviews to find youngsters with all-round potential rather than simply being academically gifted, and who have the capacity to become tomorrow’s leaders. In March 2022, the Amathuba Foundation joined as a programme partner with the aim of facilitating customised additional funding and providing personalised mentorship to the scholarship boys who are at high school.

“This tree-planting event aligns completely with Safire’s brand, values, and history,” says Safire CEO Pierre Bekker. “Our history dates back to 1987 when Safire was started as an innovative insurance co-operative by timber-growers, and we like to say that our roots are in timber. Our corporate strapline is ‘short-term insurers, long term partners’, which is exactly what this tree planting drive sums up, uniting representatives from Safire, Cordwalles and the Amathuba Foundation. Safire prioritises an awareness of the environment and the necessity of ensuring the protection of our forests and especially our indigenous flora and fauna. Our marketing is based on the theme of mutually-beneficial symbiotic relationships in nature, and by funding and helping to plant these indigenous trees in the forest at Cordwalles, our long-term scholarship programme partner, we reinforce our culture of collaboration and mutual growth.”

These are the indigenous tree species that were planted, ten of each:

Vepris lanceolata – White ironwood

Combretum kraussii – River bushwillow

Syzygium cordatum – Umdoni / Waterberry

Kiggelaria Africana – Wild peach

Curtisia dentata – Assegai (red list conservation status)

Podocarpus latifolius – Broad-leafed yellowwood