"On the 1st of August 2016, a Shoprite/Checkers truck crashed into and wrote off our precious bakkie. The accident was the fault of the truck driver. Despite our 1997 Nissan bakkie having a 'new' second hand engine, and the sprucing up of her body work, the insurance pay-out was only R39 000. Our multiple pleas to Shoprite/Checkers to help get us back on the road has gone unanswered."
(SA Mast/Image: SA Mast)
I'm on the mailing list of SA Mass Animal Sterilisation Society. The above is what they wrote on September 19.
While Shoprite/Checkers' may have been technically correct from an insurance point of view not to respond, we all know that for old vehicles especially the insurance pay-out for write-offs is a fraction of the replacement cost.
My point is, while there are risks driving on public roads, it's unfair and galling when a careless driver destroys property we are struggling to maintain to earn a livelihood. Neither Shoprite/Checkers' driver nor managers will lose sleep over this. But SA Mast and the community of Khayelitsha - people and their companion animals - will be severely affected.
Shoprite/Checkers' chief executive, Whitey Basson, earns R50m a year. The cost of a roadworthy, used bakkie, say R100 000, is 0.2% of his salary. Their profits for 2015 are R6.3bn, and revenue R114bn, up 11% from the previous year. That replacement bakkie is 0.002% of profits.
Shoprite probably has a social responsibility programme and donates to politically correct causes. I don't care enough about them to waste data downloading and reading their annual results. But unlike competitors Pick n Pay and Woolworths my perception of them, particularly relating to environmental and related causes, is not good.
Perhaps SA Mast didn't frame their request for "help getting us back on the road" properly, or their legal department told them to ignore it. But given SA Mast's plight and the invaluable work they're doing, Shoprite, and Basson with his ridiculous salary, ought to be ashamed and could have made a donation. But this is the ugly face of corporations and their officers: living large at our expense while we struggle for crumbs.
I shall give a donation to SA Mast toward another vehicle. And I ask shoppers, particularly animal lovers, to consider walking on by Shoprite and Checkers on their next shopping day.
Postscript: According to SA Mast's notice on September 26, Shoprite approached them and offered to help. I don't know why they changed their mind, but I'm heartened they did.
However, it should not have taken SA Mast, and me, going public about their earlier reluctance before they offered to rectify - if not legally, then morally - a situation they created. Anyway, thank you Shoprite.
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