As donations stream in to boost the Solidarity Fund's relief coffers, its acting chief executive Nomkhitha Nqweni said stringent accountability measures had been put in place to ensure there was no abuse of money.

Three weeks into operation, the fund has received more than R2bn in donations. It expects further injections from President Cyril Ramaphosa, his cabinet ministers and provincial premiers who pledged a third of their salaries for the next three months.

The EFF, other business leaders and academics have followed suit, donating a portion of their income to help fight Covid-19.

The R2.2bn reflected what the fund has already received while other pledges made by prominent families such as the Motsepes, Ruperts and Oppenheimers are still subject to negotiations. The Rupert family wants their R1bn pledge to go towards assisting SMMEs which is something that falls outside the mandate of the fund.

Sowetan has learnt that there's ongoing engagement between the Motsepe and Oppenheimer families, with the latter seeking to create their own fund while still committing to contribute something towards the Solidarity Fund.

In an interview, Nqweni said the fund would report and make public all donations and payments from the fund on an ongoing basis for transparency. "As a custodian of donations from many organisations and individuals, the Solidarity Fund is committed to transparency... the board will operate with high standards of corporate governance From large corporates to medium-sized businesses and members of the public, [they] have responded generously despite uncertainty around the economic outlook," Nqweni said.

The 11-member board has since established sub-committees which would specifically deal with fund-raising, distribution and risk and audit.

Nqweni said the fund has already hit the ground running to buy 200 much-needed ventilators and also approved a R100m facility to procure 6.5m surgical masks for frontline healthcare workers.

Last week, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) hauled government before the labour court in Johannesburg over the issue of lack of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers on duty.

The union, one of the biggest in the public sector, had argued that working had
become a serious risk for health workers in various parts of the country as they have to handle patients without all the required protective equipment.

Nqweni said ventilators and masks had been identified as urgent needs to stop the spread of the coronavirus and supporting fellow citizens during this time. Nqweni said an announcement would be made soon on some of their work "with other partners on humanitarian relief efforts".

"Our resources will be carefully targeted at high-impact procurement where government is not able to act with the speed required, or on critical products and services that fall outside the capacity of the state," Nqweni said.

She also explained that the fund's mandate didn't however include providing relief to businesses. "There are other private and public sector initiatives who have been earmarked to assist businesses at this time," Nqweni said.

The fund's work is overseen by a board which is chaired by businesswoman Gloria Serobe, with Adi Enthoven as the deputy chairperson. Other members include Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, Sizwe Nxasana and ministers Tito Mboweni and Ebrahim Patel among others.

Financial firms EY and ENS Africa have, on a pro bono basis, developed a governance framework that will guide the allocation of all funds.