CEO of Little Eden Society, Ms Ann Coetzee, receiving a cheque from Empact Group CEO, Alan Quinn and Sanele Mlambo, Empact Group's Marketing & Communications Executive
Golf, bowls and padel. Three sports, three worthy causes, one powerful statement of corporate purpose from Empact- South Africa’s leading multi-services group.
By Simon Manda
CENTURION, 26 FEBRUARY 2026—There was more on the line at Irene Country Club on 26 February 2026 than a golf handicap. Empact Group’s fourth annual Empact Connect Day brought clients, partners and staff together across three sporting disciplines—golf, bowls, and padel—before the real highlight of the afternoon: a formal cheque handover ceremony in which three South African non-profit organisations each received a donation, with all funds raised through the day’s play distributed directly to beneficiaries on the day itself.
Sport as a Force for Good
The Empact Connect Day is not a standard corporate golf day. It is a deliberate CSI vehicle — one where the sport is the fundraising mechanism, and the community impact is the outcome. Now in its fourth consecutive year, the event has matured into one of the most distinctive fixtures in Empact’s annual calendar. The choice of three disciplines is intentional: a golf four-ball alliance with a scramble drive for the fairway regulars; a bowls team event with teams selected on the day; and padel, two players per game, with with teams drawn on arrival. The format is inclusive by design. Not every client plays golf, and Empact knows it.
The 2026 edition was the most ambitious yet. The invitation to guests read, “Sometimes the wait is longer, because the outcome is better” — a quiet acknowledgement that the company had invested extra time and intention into making this year count. It did.
Giving Back Is What Makes Us
Empact’s CSI policy is structured around three pillars: people development, community engagement and environmental practices. The Connect Day sits squarely within the community engagement pillar — and the selection of beneficiaries reflects the same values that run through the company’s commercial model. The goal, as articulated by Empact’s leadership, is not one-off corporate giving but the building of lasting, systemic relationships with organisations that need more than a cheque.
“At Empact Group, our slogan is ‘We Care.” ‘We have three divisions — cleaning, catering and facilities. Our purpose is really about communities. We care about our communities. Today, we have three charities we are supporting: Little Eden, Alta du Toit and No More Victims. For us, giving back to the community is important — because that is what makes us.”
— Sanele Mlambo, Group Marketing & Communications Executive, Empact Group
HR Executive Salwa Albertyn underlined the long-view thinking behind the beneficiary selection, pointing to Nelson Mandela Day 2025 — when Empact employees and partners mobilised to fully revamp both houses operated by No More Victims Safe House — as evidence that the company’s care predates the cheque and will outlast it.
“Today’s fundraising will distribute cheques to our beneficiaries in terms of what we’ve raised. It speaks close to our CSR initiative goals, which form part of the people and the community aspects of our CSI policy. We are on a journey of having a systemic relationship with these organisations — and we’re very thrilled to honour these guests today.”
— Salwa Albertyn, HR Executive, Empact Group
The Organisations That Received Support
Little Eden Society — Edenvale, Gauteng
Founded in 1967 by the late Domitilla Rota Hyams, who began with three little girls in a borrowed church hall in Edenvale, Little Eden Society has grown into one of South Africa’s most enduring organisations for people with profound intellectual disabilities. Today, the Society cares for 300 residents aged four to 70 across two facilities: the Domitilla Hyams Home in Edenvale and Elvira Rota Village in Bapsfontein.
Residents receive 24-hour care alongside physiotherapy, music therapy, speech therapy and a structured skills development programme, grounded in three core values: Respect, Sanctity of Life and Love & Care. In 2026, Little Eden was named a finalist in the Best NGO category at the CSI Legacy Awards. Its founders, Domitilla and Danny Hyams, are the subject of a formal cause for beatification by the Vatican — the first South African couple to receive the status of Servants of God.
Alta du Toit Aftercare Centre — Boston, Bellville, Western Cape
Established in April 1978 in Boston, Bellville, the Alta du Toit Aftercare Centre was created to fill a gap its founding family had experienced first-hand: the absence of residential care for adults with intellectual disabilities who had aged out of school. The centre’s roots stretch to 1964, when the late Reverend Daan du Toit and his wife Alta opened the Sunshine Home in Cape Town’s northern suburbs for their daughter and others with similar needs.
Today, the Centre — a programme of Badisa, the social services arm of the Dutch Reformed and Uniting Reformed Churches in the Western Cape — serves 160 residential clients and 60 day-care clients with Down syndrome, foetal alcohol syndrome, autism, Prader-Willi syndrome and related conditions. Its mission is straightforward: to enable adults with intellectual disabilities to lead self-determined, productive lives.
No More Victims Safe House
No More Victims Safe House is a community-based organisation providing shelter and support to individuals and families affected by crime and violence, operating two houses as places of safety for those with nowhere else to turn. Empact’s relationship with the organisation deepened significantly during Nelson Mandela Day 2025, when company teams and partners fully revamped both houses — a practical act of restoration that renewed both the physical spaces and the dignity of those who live in them. The donation presented at Empact Connect Day 2026 is the continuation of that commitment.
The Ball Is in Your Hand
For a business whose day-to-day work happens largely out of public view — in kitchens, service corridors and facilities schedules — the Empact Connect Day is a moment of visibility. It is where the company’s internal values meet the world outside. The three organisations supported in 2026 together serve children and adults with profound intellectual disabilities, residents of Cape Town’s Bellville community, and individuals caught in cycles of violence and vulnerability. What each of them needs is not a single act of generosity, but a partner who shows up consistently. That is precisely what Empact has committed to being.
The ball, as this year’s invitation reminded guests, is in your hand. Empact has made its shot count.
