Strengthening our position as a credible stakeholder partner
Effective stakeholder engagement is fundamental to delivering our strategy
and creating value for all stakeholders.
KEY MESSAGE
WHY STAKEHOLDERS MATTER
Our success and the sustainability of our business
depends on the support of our stakeholders. The process
of protecting, creating and growing value is advanced
through our relationships with key stakeholders, making
it a business imperative to understand and be responsive
to their needs and interests.
OUR STAKEHOLDER APPROACH OBJECTIVES
Position Sasol to be
experienced as a credible
partner and build trust with all
our stakeholders.
Make meaningful socio-economic
impacts in the
countries and communities in
which we operate.
In South Africa, in an effort to build trust and win support, we conducted an external stakeholder perception audit and listening
excercise focusing on government, non-governmental organisations and fence-line communities. We used this feedback to map
a journey to 2022 and beyond to redefine our relationship goal.
Key factors that emerged:
Our stakeholders are diverse,
and localised solutions are
important to remain relevant
and have impact.
We need to focus on contributing towards
improving the quality of people’s lives,
primarily by enabling meaningful economic
participation, especially of fence-line
communities.
Good governance and leadership with integrity are important.
Our stakeholders
Our stakeholders are persons or groups who are directly or indirectly affected by our operations, as well as those who have
interests in our business and/or the ability to influence outcomes.
Sasol has a complex network of stakeholders, often with competing interests that include local communities, national, provincial
or local government authorities, politicians, religious leaders, civil society organisations and groups with special interests, the
academic community and media. In addition, they include employees, investors, suppliers, customers and business partners.
Our stakeholders include the following:
We are determined to use the reach of our business to create opportunities in the areas where we operate.
Sasol's promise to society
We recognise that in today’s world,
stakeholder engagement is about working
collaboratively with stakeholders to find
solutions for more inclusive economies.
As a global firm with strong roots in South
Africa, our promise to society is that we will
seek to employ inclusive and sustainable
business practices that enable development
in the geographies and communities
where we operate. Our products touch
and enhance the quality of people’s lives
every day and we see great potential to do
more to enable economic development.
In addition, using our extensive value
chain, we commit ourselves to facilitating
inclusive and local supply chains, enabling
local economies and the development of
critical skills.
Our Response to our stakeholders priorities
Sasol has a number of fence-line communities globally. There are growing expectations
from communities that Sasol contributes to lowering unemployment and enabling
meaningful economic participation by creating opportunities in its value chain,
particularly in South Africa and Mozambique.
Community stakeholders have an increasingly important role, specifically in the
environmental space with the power to impact Sasol’s ability to do business.
A multi-pronged and multi-year, integrated response to community development aimed
at enabling economic access is in place. This response consists of the following:
Effective Social Investment programme as indicated below.
Community engagement – Proactive multi-stakeholder engagements to agree on
development priorities. Engagements to build the knowledge base of our stakeholders
on top priority issues.
In addition, an integrated, organisation-wide programme is in place to enhance Sasol's
reputation with all stakeholders, comprising:
Delivery on our commitments;
Changes to Sasol‘s culture and ways of working as it relates to stakeholders;
Measurement and reporting on reputation performances; and
Ensuring Sasol‘s value proposition to its stakeholders is developed and that we are
embedded in conversations on topics that matter to stakeholders.
2018 SOCIAL INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS
Benefited 907students
through the Sasol bursary programme
During 2018 we increased the total Group Social Investment spend globally by 21% since 2017 to a total spend of R817,7 million
Increased access to HIV/Aids HEALTHCARE facilities in Southern Africa to over 380 000 community members
Increased the Sasol Siyakha Fund loan book to R301,7 million and loans were granted to 91 SMMEs since 2008
As in previous years, our 2018 Social Investment spend IN South Africa, exceeded the international best practice of 1% of net profit after tax.
Increased reach of our STEM education support programmes in South Africa and Mozambique to 6 million learners, students and teachers.
Enabled a step change in our early childhood development (ECD) programme.
Over 2 800 Sasol employees are registered in Sasol for Good employee volunteering activities, benefiting 220 000
people and reaching 497 causes.
2018 ENGAGEMENT WITH OUR STAKEHOLDERS
Aligned with our strategy, we continue engaging our stakeholders through a multi-stakeholder
engagement approach.
Our 2018 stakeholder engagement plan was informed by Sasol and stakeholders’ priority issues. We
responded to stakeholder concerns while also progressing strategic business issues, and working to
proactively build more trust-based relationships. We engaged with communities, environmental non-governmental
organisations, Parliamentary Portfolio Committees, ministers, government officials,
the media, as well as Sasol employees.
Quarterly, we track the commitments we have made to stakeholders, specifically in South Africa
and Mozambique. This allows management to ensure that we continue to progress in meeting these
commitments. Most of our initiatives to meet these commitments are on track.
Government
During the year, we continued to participate and
support national conversations aimed at improving the
economic trajectory in South Africa and Mozambique.
We participated in a number of global leadership forums
and continued to maintain good working relationships
with governments and regulatory authorities in the
countries in which we operate.
In South Africa, Sasol is actively engaged in the 2030
scenario work and has contributed to a national small
business fund. We are also an early-adopter in the
Youth Employment Service Initiative to provide work
opportunities and training to 1 000 youth over a fouryear
period. Sasol is a member of the task team focusing
on the economic rejuvenation of the Vaal Triangle.
We have embarked on an intensive engagement plan
with key stakeholders to find sustainable solutions
to issues related to the environment as well as our
contribution to transformation in South Africa.
On 6 February 2018, we inaugurated our
R13,6 billion FTWEP plant in Sasolburg. Together with
our French partner, Air Liquide, we hosted the Minister
of Environmental Affairs, Ms Edna Molewa, who
inaugurated the €200 million, 17th oxygen train at our
Secunda complex on 26 March 2018. Post year-end, on
5 July 2018, the Minister of Mineral Resources opened
the Shondoni Mine in Mpumalanga as part of our
R14 billion mine replacement programme.
Sasol has demonstrated our commitment to
Mozambique through participation in the Advancing
Mozambique campaign as a key investor. Through
these types of platforms, we promote Mozambique as
an attractive investment destination, and openly stated
our commitment to Mozambique for the long term.
In addition, we focused on maintaining good working
relationships with government authorities in the
countries in which we operate, keeping them informed
of our activities, ongoing projects and key concerns as
well as engaging on a wide range of policy, regulatory
and licensing issues.
Employees
This year reflected a step change in
employee engagement. Our Joint CEOs
undertook numerous site visits and held
town hall sessions with employees at
our various operational sites and offices
in the US, Europe and Southern Africa.
Information shared at these engagements
covered several strategic focus areas for
the organisation, including safety, Sasol’s
strategy and annual priorities, culture
transformation and broad-based black
economic empowerment (B-BBEE) in South
Africa. Surveys conducted after these
engagements indicated that employees
are mostly satisfied with the quality,
relevance and range of information shared
by the Joint CEOs, and that the sessions
had improved their understanding of
our business.
We have had extensive engagements
with employees on Sasol Khanyisa,
explaining the significant opportunities
it will create for Sasol, the community and
our employees. At the same time, we’ve
emphasised our commitment to being a
best-in-class employer with meritocracy
based business practices which reward
our entire employee base, regardless of
race, ethnicity or gender, through our
reward and benefit structure. Due to the
design of Sasol Khanyisa, it is considered
an ownership structure and does not form
part of our Sasol benefit structure.
We have made great progress with our
Sasol for Good employee volunteering
programme. Employees from a wide range
of professional backgrounds have pledged
3 000 hours over the past year making
a real impact across a range of worthy
projects.
Community
Sasol is a significant employer and investor in the health,
education and skills of local communities across Southern
Africa in partnership with local authorities, NGOs and the
business community.
As public services come under extreme pressure, we know
we have to find new ways to listen, collaborate and invest
to play a positive role in the priorities of these communities.
Our focus is on improving service delivery, access to health
services as well as significant investments in education and
skills development. In response to community concerns and
needs, we have made a concerted effort to enhance our small
business development value proposition. The Sasol Inzalo
Foundation bursaries have now been expanded to include
non-science, technology, engineering and mathematics
qualifications.
Regarding service delivery in our fence-line communities in
South Africa we remain concerned about the effectiveness
of local government in delivering required services. While
we continue to support service delivery effectiveness,
we recognise that more sustainable solutions to local
government effectiveness must be found.
In South Africa Sasol engages with communities to address
concerns raised and co-create sustainable solutions to some
of the more difficult challenges. During the year, we have had
a number of engagements with local economic development
and community forums focusing on finding ways in working
together to address local challenges. We have also engaged
on a national level to explore how Sasol can support local
government to be more sustainable.
Engagements have focused on community development,
local government collaboration on infrastructure projects, as
well as our offset projects aimed at improving air quality.
In Mozambique, engagements with our Community Liaison
Forum focused on ensuring fair job allocation amongst
communities and to finding solutions to issues of mutual
interest.
Our North American operations have developed regional
social investment signature projects based on feedback
received from a wide spectrum of community stakeholders,
as well as Sasol employees. These initiatives are built on
a foundation of partnerships with local residents and
community organisations that have a vested interest in the
success of the programmes.
Finally, a number of programmes have been developed in
Qatar, including Definitely Able and Accessible Qatar, focusing
on inclusion and awareness of the disabled community in
society.
Media
There continues to be strong media interest in Sasol across a range of issues that span our entire business, including
strategy, capital investments, operations and financial performance. To strengthen relationships and improve the media’s
understanding of our organisation, a number of roundtable discussions were held on (i) our new B-BBEE ownership
scheme, Sasol Khanyisa (ii) our refined value-based growth strategy and (iii) the changing environmental landscape in
South Africa.
This year, we built relationships with top tier media companies in both the UK and US markets. We continuously monitor
coverage of Sasol on a global basis and measure sentiment to identify reputation risk affecting the organisation.
Capital Markets Day
In addition, in 2018 we engaged investors on our new
B-BBEE ownership scheme, Sasol Khanyisa, and shared
our refined value-based growth strategy through our
capital market days held in Johannesburg (South Africa)
and New York City (US).
Investors
Regular engagements with large institutional
investors held through bi-annual roadshows
and conferences held in South Africa, the UK
and the US.
INCREASING LOCAL CONTENT AND ADDRESSING SOCIAL CHALLENGES
Our preferential procurement practices and local content requirement prerequisites in
the areas we operate provide us with an opportunity to drive local requirements and,
in South Africa, provide a specific focus on social and economic transformation within
our sphere of influence.
MANAGING OUR SUPPLY CHAIN EFFECTIVELY
Our Supply Chain function (Supply Chain) is responsible
for ensuring the sustainable supply of utilities, goods,
services and products for our business. The Supplier
Management process facilitates ethical, fair and equal
treatment of suppliers and the continuous improvement of
our integrated value chain to deliver optimum value to the
benefit of Sasol.
Supply Chain has implemented the Supply Chain Governance
Framework, which has a specific focus on supplier
management. On an annual basis, all our supply chain
employees are required to declare their support and commit
to diligent behaviour to prevent any form of bribery and
corruption. Employees are also trained regularly to ensure
the understanding and implementation of anti-bribery and
corruption (ABAC) practices. We have also implemented
processes for ABAC practices in our dealings with suppliers.
To deliver greater value to our communities, our small
business development programmes have been relocated to
our Supplier Management and Transformation department
within Supply Chain in order to ensure integration with
the broader supply chain and grow our preferential
procurement base, rather than dealing with them as an
aspect of Corporate Social Investment.
ENSURING ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
The economic transformation strategy is focusing on
procurement practices towards local content requirements
in South Africa, and provides a valuable opportunity to drive
social and economic transformation. We have a deliberate
focus on economic transformation in South Africa in order
to provide meaningful and sustainable mainstream business
opportunities for previously disadvantaged businesses
and communities. We do this with the intention of creating
and utilising an equitably representative supplier base,
particularly in the regions in which we operate. We have
made good progress with regards to Broad-Based Black
Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE).
We have implemented a fence-line community supplier
strategy to accelerate the achievement of our preferential
procurement targets towards exempted micro-enterprises
(EMEs) and qualifying small enterprises (QSEs). Furthermore,
our enterprise and supplier development teams will
continue to provide new and existing suppliers with
targeted interventions and financial support aimed at
enhancing their business and improving the skills level of
suppliers.
OUR AIM
To create
meaningful
opportunities
for transformed
businesses to
work with us.
To accelerate the
development of
small transformed
businesses.
THE ASSOCIATED RESULT
SHARED VALUE
2018 HIGHLIGHTS AT A GLANCE
619
Supplier technical and
safety audits conducted
based on standard Sasol
supplier requirements.
360
Suppliers have been
trained on the Supplier
Code of Ethics and ABAC
requirements.
R4,7 billion
Preferential procurement
expenditure in the
Sasolburg and Secunda
regions up from R2,6 billion
in 2017.
A large number of opportunities have been identified in the economic transformation environment and to date 30 contractshave been assigned to suppliers in the different regions.
Managing our suppliers effectively
In line with our ABAC policy, a set of commitments, principles
and standards have been implemented as part of the Sasol
supplier application and verification process. These will be
fully implemented over a 36-month period to ensure ABAC
compliance as per the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA),
UK Bribery Act and the UNGC Guidelines.
We have implemented a process, which screens existing
and new suppliers to ensure that they are legally compliant
in terms of the Sanction Screening Legislation. Screenings
are also being performed on supply purchase orders and
deliveries from suppliers. Further, we have engaged with
suppliers who deviate from, or do not support, our supplier
code of ethics. Our aim is to achieve a commitment to
acceptable levels of ethical behaviour and suppliers are
being trained on the specific requirements contained in the
code.
Suppliers need to be Occupational Health and Safety
Assessment Series (OHSAS) certified and compliance with
prescribed environmental standards is a requirement in
the supplier accreditation protocol. Suppliers are required
to have procedures and records in place for recording and
investigating non-conformances to indicate immediate
actions taken to avoid problems pending further
investigation.
During the supplier application process, all suppliers need to
agree that they will comply with the minimum standard set
for supplier safety management. Suppliers agreed to the SHE
requirements as part of their contractual commitment. ESG
compliance audits are conducted on an ad hoc basis with our
material suppliers.
Further we conducted a supplier risk analysis to identify
potential risks to reliable supply and preventative mitigation
actions have been implemented in areas of high risk exposure.
A number of risks and mitigation actions have been addressed
to ensure continued and uninterrupted support to our business.
For more information refer to our UNGC CDP and the Supply chain focus story on www.sasol.com (in the downloads tab).
