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The Hasso Plattner Foundation has donated R100 million towards the Solidarity Fund to help the country's efforts in fighting Covid-19.
The foundation, which was founded by philanthropist and co-founder of German software company SAP, Hasso Plattner, released a statement on Tuesday announcing the donation.
"South Africa has become a home from home for me and my family for decades. I am aware of the challenges and always eager to help create opportunities, through our own social responsibility projects or by supporting other impactful initiatives like The Solidarity Fund," said Hasso Plattner.
The independently administered fund was set up in March with seed capital of R150 million from the state to support vulnerable South Africans. In its first week raised over R500 million from corporates and individuals. Among the individuals who have contributed to the fund include Mary Oppenheimer and her daughters, who contributed R1 billion. Numerous companies, including Vodacom, Dis-Chem, Woolworths and Naspers have also made donations to the fund.
As of June 7, the fund had raised R2.61 billion, according to its website
SAP, a multinational software corporation based in Walldorf, Germany, has been caught up in misconduct relating to state capture. In 2018 it admitted to paying R128.6 million to companies linked to the Gupta family via seven separate commissions on contracts with Eskom and Transnet. After the claims of corruption initially came to light in 2017 as a result of the publication of the Guptaleaks emails, the software company suspended three senior executives, who later quit.
