South African Charity Golf Day

Mission Statement

Mission Statement

History

History

Directors

Directors

Financials

Financials

Funds

Funds

Contact and Links

Contact and Links

Each year we will organise a golf day accompanied by a gala dinner as well as other functions during the year to raise funds openly and unashamed in support of children in South Africa who are directly or indirectly affected by aids. This includes programs supporting housing, medical, education or social activities and support for carers involved in these programs.

Message from F W de Klerk

"I am indeed proud to the Patron of the annual South African Charity Golf Day, a position I have held since 2001. The funds that are raised help in special ways to improve the lives of children in South Africa. The charities that the F W de Klerk Foundation has adopted support education projects for blind and deaf children and children suffering from autism and sever mental handicaps. My wife Elita and I have many personal experiences of how this work is making a real difference in improving the day to day lives of so many children who have so little.

I would like to thank all our sponsors, the participating golfers and dinner guests, the numerous volunteers and also to congratulate the organisers for staging such a wonderful event."

In late 1996 Geoff Johnson arranged a small golf day for South Africans he knew within the Proteas and the Impala Golfing Societies. 28 golfers gathered on a cold late November day and braved the elements at a frosty Mentmore Golf and Country Club in Bedfordshire near Leighton Buzzard. Despite the conditions there was enthusiasm amongst the participants and Geoff, helped by Cobus Odendal (Proteas) and Mark Sher (Impalas), felt satisfied that the day was a success. Those first hardy bunch insisted Geoff organise something the following year which resulted in 54 golfers entering the second event. With the help of three other equally committed and enthusiastic South Africans, Inus Oosthuizen, Jacques Keyser and Dave Suter, the first official South African Golf Day was held, and continued to be held at Mentmore until 2002.

Geoff invited Francois Pienaar, formally captain of the Springbok Rugby team and then with Saracens Rugby Club, and Clive Rice, formally captain of the South African Cricket team and then with Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, to form a Trust called S.A.I.N.T. (South Africans In Need Trust), that became the official recipients of funds raised from 1998 to 2003. Monies were sent to the respective rugby and cricket Boards to go towards development of their sport for children in the townships of South Africa.

Participant numbers shot up to 147, some say mainly due to Castle beer offering a generous supply of South Africa’s favourite lager. MillerBrands, distributors of Castle, Peroni and Pilsner Urquel beers in the UK, and owned by the multi national SABMiller, are now the main sponsors of the annual South African Charity Golf Day. They make a generous financial contribution to our charities and donate a large variety of items, including beer, which adds so much to the further enjoyment of our participants.

It has also been a tradition from the outset to serve boerewors (a traditional South African sausage) throughout the day. This has always been supplied by an English butcher, Joe Collier from Eastwoods of Berkhamsted, who consistently appears in the top ten UK Butchers awards. While the tradition of serving boerewors throughout the day still remains, Nyama Catering supply and organise the braai (BBQ) and also provide lamb on the spit so golfers are fed from the early hours of the morning. Nyama have offered this service since 2004 and we are pleased with the contacts they have built by their generous support of the South African Charity Golf Day.

Callaway Golf first became involved in 1999 through Gareth Davies, a young South African who worked in their IT department. They have remained loyal sponsors ever since and today provide a large amount of golfing handouts and prizes for our event.

In 2001, Mr FW de Klerk, the former President of South Africa and joint Nobel Peace Prize winner with Nelson Mandela in 1993, was invited to attend the annual South African Charity Golf Day. This attracted the largest attendance we have ever had with 428 golfers playing Mentmore’s two championship 18 hole courses, and almost 600 people attending the Gala Dinner in the evening. We then invited Mr de Klerk to be our Patron, a position he has held with distinction ever since. Mr de Klerk has also been highly instrumental in attracting sponsors, and attends each year, together with his wife Elita.

British Airways also became a major sponsor in 2001 and still remain so today. We are grateful to Alan Burnett, then BA’s Manager for Africa. Alan has since retired from BA and is on the organising committee and a board member of SACGD C.I.C.

In 2003 the annual South African Charity Golf Day moved to Moor Park, a prestigious venue nearer to London. Golfbreaks.com became our first professional event organisers which they did with great commitment and enthusiasm as part of their sponsorship package. Their involvement allowed the day to be moved to Foxhills Club and Resort in 2004. Continuing on our rotation strategy, the event moved to Stoke Park in 2005, where Team Tactics under Tina Benson assisted us with the organisation. The event at Stoke Park also heralded a lucrative 3 year sponsorship contract with Coca-Cola Africa. We are most grateful for their generosity during this period, during which the day has grown to become the largest golfing event of its kind in Europe.

Belron, who control Auto Glass in the UK, have consistently helped us with financial sponsorship since 2005. In 2007, Matrix Golf who market golfing holidays to South Africa, arranged for the winners of our main raffle prize to spend 6 nights at Fancourt on the Garden Route, and two nights at both Kleine Zalze and the Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town.

The next major development was to move from supporting S.A.I.N.T. (now disbanded) as we wanted to turn our efforts to supporting children directly or indirectly suffering from AIDS, benefiting education or social programmes and also including carers. After much debate, it was decided to support four well known South African Charities who covered our funding objectives – The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, The FW de Klerk Foundation, Starfish Greathearts Foundation and Ma Afrika Tikkun. Furthermore, with three of these charities registered in the UK and with staff members and volunteers available to assist in the organising, we felt the annual South African Charity Golf Day would enjoy greater coverage as well as reducing costs by negating the need for outside event organisers. Today, the entire event is run by volunteers who receive no remuneration, merely receiving the simple reward that they are helping others less fortunate than themselves. This includes many members of Foxhills Club and Resort who give up a day to assist with marshalling and ball spotting to ensure our guests get around the two courses in a happy and relaxed atmosphere.

Inus Oosthuizen and Jacques Keyser stood down from the Organising Committee after the 2007 event at Foxhills. They made a worthy contribution through their many years of tireless work and we are pleased both still remain firm supporters and participants each year. In 2008, we invited Ron Cruickshank to join us and take responsibility for finance. Francois Pienaar, not the rugby player but a senior executive with MillerBrands, also joined the committee alongside Alan Burnett, who had recently retired after many years at British Airways, and finally Jean-Paul da Costa was invited to join the committee to add his legal skills.

In 2009 we added a fifth benefiting charity – Thuthuka Educational Trust, which is the chosen beneficiary of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). SAICA have almost 3,000 registered South Africans living in the UK. They have also extended to us the services of Kate Golding and Margo Thomas who we have appointed Tournament Organisers. The final member appointed to the organising committee is Niall Wilkins, Second Secretary at the South African High Commission in London, and also a single handicap golfer.

Geoff Johnson Geoff arrived in the UK in the early 1990s. He has held positions with Standard Bank, the SA Perm and NedPerm prior to leaving South Africa. For the past 16 years he has worked for St. James's Place Wealth Management Group, quoted on the London Stock Exchange, where he is a Senior Partner. Geoff is the Founder of the annual South African Charity Golf Day and remains Chairman of SACGD C.I.C. as well as Tournament Director. He is very proud of his two children Matthew and Cara, both keen supporters of the day.
Margo Thomas Margo has a wide variety of experience in event management and over the years has been responsible for events ranging from children's summer camps, weddings, two day training events, and award ceremonies in the city for a leading newspaper.
Tim Odell Tim began his business career in South Africa with Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young) and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1983 before heading up their Cape Town Business Services Department. Resident in the UK since 1996, Tim has over 25 years of experience acting for sensitive clients on a worldwide basis in various specialist areas. It is this expertise that has provided the platform from which many complex international forensic cases have been solved. He has been actively involved in Charitable fund raising for many years and his achievements include the establishment of: The UK Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund The Kings Kitchen - a joint venture with seven different churches in Cape Town - which ran successfully for over 13 years One of the world's largest computerised cash management schemes for the Methodist Church of Southern Africa - which has been operational for around 20 years
Alan Burnett Alan was born is Ayr, Scotland in 1946 and went to school at Ayr Academy. He emigrated to South Africa in 1970 and spent 16 years there where he married his wife Ineke in Johannesburg and his 2 sons were born there. Alan's association with the South African Charity Golf Day was initially as a sponsor when he worked for British Airways and he was invited to become a committee member 2 years ago after his retirement. His brief is to liaise with the selected golf club to ensure that the golf day runs smoothly. He is a proud member of Foxhills Golf Club which is particularly helpful as it has been the venue for 5 successful SA Charity Golf Days.