The first black president of the Republic of South Africa, Nelson R Mandela is internationally renowned for his life long struggle as a freedom fighter and an anti apartheid stalwart. He is popularly referred to as the grandfather of the nation of SA. He spent 67 years of his life serving humanity in fighting poverty and racism amongst the South African people. ‘Madiba’, is what Nelson Mandela is affectionately called by his people, celebrates his birthday on the 18 July. He used this day for the launch of ‘46664’ (his global HIV/AIDS awareness campaign) in 2002. In 2009 the success of this campaign led to the international adoption of the “Mandela Day”. This year the organizers of the 46664 day established “67 minutes” of service to the community as an international campaign to ensure that the legacy of Madiba’s 67 years of service to humanity does not die.

Regent Business School (RBS) through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme has taken this opportunity to spend 67 minutes in service to the Ekuhlengeni Psychiatric Hospital. The hospital accommodates 800 mentally disabled patients from various backgrounds. Employees from RBS went to the hospital in collaboration with SANZAF (a national charitable organization) to prepare the soil and cultivate a spinach plantation. Other members from the community joined in during the trans-planting phase. The spinach is expected to initially take four weeks until harvest and then a further three weeks for subsequent harvests. The projected income is around R5000 per month from the harvest after consumption of the spinach by the patients. The special volunteers were the MEC’s from the department of agriculture who also got their green fingers into the soil.

 An effort such as 67 minutes is a great start for all companies to get themselves active with CSR. Business is the economic engine in our society, if we can transform it to truly serve ourselves and nature, it can be an essential part of the survival of humanity. As Martin Luther King Jr. said "The time is always right, to do what is right." RBS has surely set an example and is already looking ahead to more CSR events in the near future.