In 2012, Wipro South Africa launched various social initiatives under the Wipro Siyapha brand.
It’s values of good citizenship aim to create an equitable and just society through Skills Development, Socio-Economic Development and Enterprise, and Supplier Development. The strategic focus and rationale is education and skills development in order to empower communities, enable economic growth and to build a skilled localised workforce.
Wipro has successfully set up a number of social responsibility programs, aligned to the BBBEE Act. These diverse programs are designed to uplift society and enable development across all sectors.
Wipro Employability Enhancement for South Africa Program
Wipro believes in making a long-lasting impact towards creating a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. We also believe that as a key enabler to improving society, education can enable growth and development in multiple dimensions. Our core business relies on a skilled workforce and we have a rich experience on education programs in India.
Designed for graduates, this program offers a three-month long classroom training along with a three-month live project training. To date, over 230 interns have been trained in Oracle, SAP, Java, Mainframe and Testing skills. Wipro has employed over 75% of the trained graduates. The top 20% of students of the program are sent overseas for work exposure and training for a minimum of eight weeks.
Computer and Library Learning Incubators
This program is aimed at increasing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) access, library resources and entrepreneurial opportunities to rural communities. To date, five projects have been completed in Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal. The ICT and library resources are accessed by over 10,000 learners and educators.
Employee Volunteerism
Our employees volunteer their time to provide career guidance and motivational guidance to over 300 learners. Donation drives across offices, assisted in collecting stationery that benefited about 500 learners at Lodirile High School in Rietvallei. Educational toys were also donated along with a Christmas party organised for 100 children aged 2 - 5 years who attend at Little Foot Preschool in Diepsloot. Wipro also donated blankets, books, toys clothes and non-perishable food items for over 500 children from Slovo Centre and non-perishable food items to 41 children who are from parentless households at Reamohetsoe Primary School in Orange Farm.
Strategic/Corporate Partnerships
Industrial Development Corporation: Established a three-year partnership to improve ICT infrastructure and literacy to benefit over 28 000 learners and 800 educators in 29 schools.
Ingula Partnership: Built a computer learning and training centre, benefiting about five surrounding schools in partnership with a utilities company in South Africa.
Client Internship: Trained over 200 interns for leading banking customer and conducted a four weeks comprehensive customized training overseas in skills such as Java, Testing and SAP
GIBS Future CIO Program: Collaborated with a leading business institution in Africa and completed two batches of the three-month programme. Over 30 candidates graduated in 2015 and 2016, candidates travelled to India for two weeks.
Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation: Setting up the Modilati computer center in Hammanskraal and donating funds for two years at their ‘Back to School’ event to contribute towards whole school development, benefiting over 2 000 learners.
Wipro understands and appreciates that the BBBEE policy intends to create sustainable wealth and competency development across a broad spectrum of previously disadvantaged South African society.
We have identified South Africa as one of the 6 important Strategic Growth Centers for Wipro Technologies globally. We have created a separate subsidiary, Wipro Technologies South Africa (Pty) Ltd to provide the focus on services to South African customers.
Wipro today is a BBBEE level 2 contributor scored on the ICT Charter – generic scorecard; an improvement from BBBEE Level 4 in 2012. We are proud to share our story of this achievement. The following information is our on-going work towards our commitment and responsibility towards BBBEE and the community at large in South Africa.