Wellness

MultiChoice plays an important role in economic growth in Africa, contributing directly and indirectly to job creation. Some 5 000 jobs were created by us in the past 18 months in South Africa alone, with indirect employment representing 44% of the growth. Learnerships comprise 16% of direct employment, ensuring skills development in the informal sector. The major area of employment creation in the indirect market stems from additional staff in agencies, larger installer teams, content creation and facilities maintenance and upgrades.

Employment equity

Naspers values diversity in its workforce. The breakdown of the group’s annual employment equity reports, reflecting classifications to the South African Department of Labour, is shown below.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Retirement benefits

Some countries in which we operate have statutory retirement benefit funding. In others, and where appropriate, the group provides retirement benefits for full-time employees, primarily as monthly contributions to defined-contribution pension and provident funds. The assets of these funds are generally held in separate trustee-administered funds.

Medical aid benefits

Medical aid membership is compulsory in most group operations, with the employer contributing a portion of the monthly premium.

Some group companies provide postretirement healthcare benefits. This entitlement is based on an employee remaining in service until retirement age and completing a minimum service period.

Equity ownership

To retain the skills on which our sustainability depends, most group companies grant share options/share appreciation rights to employees under a number of equity compensation plans.

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

The group complies with labour legislation in its areas of operation. In South Africa, MultiChoice and Media24 submit statutory reports.

The risk of child labour and forced or compulsory labour is low in the group. Where children are used in local productions, strict compliance to their regulated conditions of employment is enforced.

TRAINING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Investing in skills development is a priority for the group, given the strategic importance of technology and intellectual property to our sustainability in a competitive market.

In the review period, MultiChoice spent over R17m on skills development initiatives. These include the New Managers Programme, Management Advancement Programme and Media Management Programme, which cover training from supervisory to executive management levels.

As technology is at the core of MultiChoice’s business, skills development is multifaceted. The company’s learnership programmes combine vocational education and training modules towards qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

During the year MultiChoice filled 249 learnership and internship positions, covering customer care, DStv Online, finance, human resources, broadcast technology and IT. These programmes give prospective and new graduates experience in the real world. Some of the programmes implemented in our businesses were as follows:

• 38 engineering and technical positions at M-Net
• 10 positions at SuperSport for practical involvement in production areas, and
• 46 positions for leadership and technical areas at MWEB.

MultiChoice awarded 51 bursaries in 2011, bringing total bursaries awarded since 2008 to 161.

SuperSport’s partnership with Wits Business School (WBS) has contributed to expanding the administrative skills base in sports bodies in Africa. Since its inception in 2006, 120 sports administrators have graduated.

Already entrenched as a world-class initiative, SuperSport expanded the programme to Nigeria in 2010, working with WBS and the Nigerian National Sports Commission to focus on major event management, leadership, corporate governance and strategy. To date 20 graduates have benefited.

Over the past year SuperSport has boosted its training in Nigeria and Kenya, particularly transferring television production skills to increase the talent pool of qualified crew. The Gain Insight From Training (GIFT) programme helps students develop skills in television production. At present 69 students are enrolled. In addition, 15 trainee crew members from Kenya and Nigeria joined their South African counterparts for hands-on training from SuperSport’s highly skilled production crew, including during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Media24 invested some R23m in the current financial year to develop employees at various levels. This included R9m to train current and future journalists at its Journalism Academy, producing 24 graduates in the past year. Beneficiaries of the academy programme, some of whom are still enrolled, included:

• 13 bursary holders (three black, three coloured and seven white)
• 16 Academy interns (seven black, one coloured and eight white), and
• eight post-bursary interns (two white, two black, three coloured and one Indian).

Media24 also awarded 229 bursaries to employees for part-time studies in 2011.

 Following a study of overseas training programmes, Paarl Media has taken the lead in developing a world-class training facility, the Paarl Media Academy of Print. The outdated trade training curriculum has been replaced by new apprenticeship programmes, following extensive research and development. In addition to the technical programmes, the academy offers Paarl Media employees skills and leadership courses. To enhance management skills in the industry, Paarl Media’s leadership development programme (through business schools of Stellenbosch, Wits and other institutions) concentrates on developing people at all management levels (supervisory to executive). The leadership pipeline programme ensures potential leaders are identified for further advancement and future management positions. The academy, an Institute of Sectoral and Occupational Excellence (ISOE), is an accredited training provider with MAPPP/ FPM Seta. It has been awarded international accreditation by City & Guilds, Britian’s leading vocational awarding body.

In our international businesses, mainly internet operations, we aim to attract young engineers. Training and development is thus key to our strategy of operating leading internet platforms in emerging markets.

We create opportunities for young entrepreneurs by sponsoring a technology incubator where 10 recent graduates are implementing their ideas for new businesses, guided by experienced engineers and project managers.

Internationally, young engineers and technologists are incentivised to further their careers in the MIH Internet group through the Junior Staff Exchange programme. This programme gave 10 talented technologists the opportunity to spend three months at other Naspers companies.

MIH also recognises the importance of retaining its experienced technologists and engineers. By recognising a select group as MIH Distinguished Technologists, we encourage senior engineers. The award includes involvement in group-wide projects and was given to 11 technologists in 2011.

Naspers also sponsors 30 students at postgraduate level in new media studies at Stellenbosch University. Graduates of the Media Lab programme have been successfully employed in group companies.

Irdeto stepped up its collaboration with some 20 universities worldwide through internships, joint research and summer schools.

CASE STUDY – SUPERSPORT IN KENYA

SuperSport held a three-month training exercise in Kenya where South African crew participated in covering local football to give Kenyans practical experience in all fields of television production. We trained over 40 operators. After securing the use of the main stadium in Kenya and with assistance from the Kenyan Premier League, 11 first-division practice matches provided practical training for trainee crew members. Productions were recorded and reviewed in the classroom to show trainees what they did well and where they needed to improve.