The legacy of Douglas and Eleanor Murray
Invest in South Africa’s potential
Cover photograph: Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course in Durban, South Africa 2018 ©Johnny Miller / Unequal Scenes
The DG Murray Trust (DGMT) is a public innovator through strategic investment. Innovation is achieved through behavioural change (influencing individual and societal mindsets and actions) and through technological change. For us, public innovation is simply the process of making the world a better place for all people, in synergy with nature.
We are committed to developing South Africa’s potential by helping to create an ethical and enabling environment where human needs and aspirations are met; and where every person is given the opportunity to fulfil their potential, for both personal benefit and for that of the wider community.
We see our role as to:
ɸ commission projects that can seize the opportunities for success;
ɸ communicate those opportunities in ways that inspire leadership and action; and
ɸ connect people of like and unlike mind, who are committed to the same goal.
The value that DGMT adds to the broader national development effort falls largely outside of formal institutions, in the spaces where government provision is often poor, where the private sector sees little role for itself in offering health, education and social services, and in parts of our nation that tend to be neglected.
DGMT’s work is centred on:
We see this as our main focus because:
› Investment in children and young people has the greatest prospect of changing long-term educational and economic trajectories.
› Expanding the semi-skilled labour market (semi-skilled in terms of the knowledge economy) will widen pathways into the skilled workforce while reducing wage inequality.
› Infusion of knowledge and skills into informal socio-economic networks (e.g. childminder networks) is likely to give the highest returns in the next decade.
› Supportive interfaces with government and the private sector (e.g. markets, financing and accreditation) will ensure greater integration into the mainstream economy over time.
Much of the real power for change and innovation today rests in synergy of human behaviour, technology and our environment. Commercial innovation is powering ahead while government and civil society struggle to ensure that the gains from innovation benefit all. Our role should be that of a real-time synergiser of technology and human behaviour for public innovation – bringing together innovations in policy, programmes and technology and integrating it into local communities.
I NS p IRING CHANGE is at the heart of our communications objectives. We have identified ten powerful opportunities to escape the inequality trap, requiring buy-in, new coalitions and a shift in mindsets.
But the next five years demand that we go further by provoking change. We want to influence complex social and economic dynamics through 3D thinking – combining programmatic, political and public-oriented strategies to open up windows of change.1
Our synergistic power lies in the effective framing of information and evidencebased research. We will expand this role over the next five years as we drive engagement with the wealth of ideas and content emanating from our ecosystem.
To this end, we will design and implement a resource hub – a “well of ideas” intended to:
› help frame the issues related to DGMT’s key opportunities;
› enable policymakers, journalists, researchers and other interest groups to source well-formulated policy briefs; and
› share knowledge through a variety of forums (virtual and literal “town hall” meetings, editorials and other formats).
Over the past ten years, DGMT has developed an unusual and distinct identity as a public innovator through strategic investment, which we hope is an exemplar for foundations in the South.
Our experience is that funders can “punch above their weight” in a developing country such as South Africa – which can have massively negative consequences or which can present a real opportunity to achieve a greater impact over a shorter period of time than in countries where political systems are more established. We also think that typical grant-making tends to fill gaps temporarily, but rarely leads to demonstrable change, and that there is a clear need for local activist foundations to build evidence, public demand and “political” alliances at the same time. We can do things that foreign foundations can’t – such as siding with government in court or even litigating against government when it fails to fulfil its constitutional obligations.
The rootedness of a local foundation in a country of the South enables sustained, context-sensitive co-investing by foundations based in other countries – and, we would argue, greatly enhances the expected benefit of such co-investment. For this reason, DGMT actively seeks co-investment in trying to achieve its strategic objectives.
Over the next five years, we are likely to see both a significant realignment of party politics, but more significantly, a realignment of the state. The space for public-private partnerships (both financial and programmatic) in pursuit of national goals is likely to expand, as narrow models of political patronage hopefully give way to a professional civil service and openness to effective collaboration.
A foundation like DGMT – a long-term public innovator and investor – could contribute significantly to the rehabilitation of this nation if it retains its identity as a dynamic, learning and caring organisation. This is our commitment as we embark on our next five-year strategy, together with other investors, implementing partners, government, the private sector, trade unions and other civil society partners.
In some countries, the gaps between rich and poor are so wide that too few people are able to build the knowledge and skills needed to fully participate in the society and the economy. Because skills are scarce, those who have them reap disproportionately high financial rewards and social status, while those who don’t are excluded from these benefits.
Those excluded have worse nutrition and poorer health and education, limiting their potential to nurture their children and contribute to the economy as they grow up. The gaps are so big that even “social wages” in some form or another are not enough to break the cycles of exclusion. This lost potential means that these countries can’t keep up with their people’s needs or benefit fully from global innovation. South Africa is one of these countries.
A quarter of our children are nutritionally stunted, seriously damaging their About one in ten children (1.2 million) fail their grade each year and 300 000 learners drop out of school annually, meaning that fewer than half our children actually complete Grade 12. school leavers will become a skilled worker, able to participate in the knowledge economy, resulting in a steadily widening wage gap between the lowest and highest 20% of households. In the lowest 20% of households, the trap extends its reach from one generation to the next.
The inequality trap constricts development all along the way.
DGMT is a long-term investor. We accept that many of the outcomes we seek to achieve may take another 10–20 years or require intergenerational change. However, whether those outcomes are achieved depends on what we as a nation do today and in the next few years. For this reason, we plan our strategy in five-year horizons, even as our compass is set by longer-term goals.
It is clear that, three decades post-apartheid, the structures of our society are not sufficiently changed to put our nation on a fundamentally different trajectory. Fewer children are dying in childhood, but their life prospects are not much better than those of their parents.
We know that trajectories of change take time, but we will only end up in a better place if we radically change the factors that determine the incline of the curve. And “radically” means “at its roots”. For human development, this means changing the day-to-day influences on the lives of every child from conception up.
We aim to change the prospects of children and young people, putting them on a fundamentally different trajectory to that of their parents and grandparents. At first, the difference may seem small and insignificant, but over time, as these paths continue to diverge, the effect of our investments should become clearer and more pronounced.
Twisting the nation’s trajectory 4
Trying to change life trajectories is ambitious and profound. It requires us to radically influence the lives of individuals and to be part of changing the circumstances in which they live. We are a small player and can only have far-reaching influence if our actions help twist the nation’s trajectory upwards.
South Africa is at a particularly low point in its post-apartheid journey. It was colonialism and apartheid that created the inequality trap from which we have been unable to escape, but this legacy has been made worse by bad decisions and corruption over the past twenty years. PostMandela, the failure to place children at the centre of development, AIDS-denialism and state capture have undermined our nation’s stability and future prospects.
But our position is that it is the action of bringing about positive change that constitutes hope, not whether the circumstances in which we find ourselves seem favourable enough to be hopeful. As public innovators, our power to shape the future lies in our ability to release systemic bottlenecks, prompt tipping points in public thinking 5 and capacitate and catalyse networks that become more energetic the larger they get 6 – through deliberate twists away from the status quo.
To build a thriving society, more people must have the knowledge, skills and opportunity to participate fully in society and the economy, for the good of one another, and in synergy with the environment.
Knowledge capital is widely and evenly distributed
People are able to use it well
For the good of one another and in synergy with their environments
Knowledge capital is the potential of an individual, community, organisation or nation to use knowledge effectively for personal or collective benefit to society. At a population level, it gives rise to healthier, wealthier and more productive societies.7 The deployment of this capital enables people to participate in an increasingly knowledge-based economy, moving beyond unskilled work into the semi-skilled and skilled domains of labour. However, these inputs not only build knowledge economies , but contribute to the development of knowledge democracies . 8 There is now a remarkable confluence of evidence that economic security is vital for happiness, health and social stability,9 and that the key to upward mobility is the full package of education, from preschool to college.10 Home (love, nutrition and cognitive stimulation) 11 and community (culture and connectedness) 12 shape the ability of people to use that knowledge capital, while social conflict and environmental degradation reduce societal resilience and undermine sustainable development.13
We have identified 10 opportunities to build a thriving society. They constitute some of the most profound twists to enable South Africa to escape the inequality trap.
These opportunities are embedded within three goals:
Innovation and inclusion often pull in different directions when a society is unequal. In South Africa, the legacy of colonialism and apartheid continues to define the ability of the majority to participate meaningfully in our economy and society. This means that marginalised groups are often excluded from accessing the knowledge and skills that enable behavioural change, and cannot afford to leverage or participate in technological innovation that can improve their livelihoods or quality of life. The work of this portfolio aims to build the scaffolding for human and knowledge capital to thrive and create lines of flight out of the inequality trap by driving public innovation.
We know that ensuring access to early learning presents a real opportunity to address intergenerational poverty, advance equality and development, and benefit a largely informal sector that is dominated by black women. Part of this work entails building a strong public mandate; improving coordination and leadership to strengthen institutions; capacitating fit-for-purpose public systems that facilitate delivery of quality early learning programmes; designing effective delivery platforms that support the scaling of early learning within informal socio-economic networks; and unlocking public finances for early learning.
Young people need income to survive and participate in society. If they can’t reach critical pathways, they will remain stuck outside of the mainstream. The term “productivity” should be viewed as economic participation, together with the creativity, social relationships, health, gender identity and other factors that signify well-being. These factors are critical, but can rarely be achieved without sufficient economic participation to break intergenerational cycles of poverty.
Passionate, imaginative, critical thinkers are integral to public innovation, particularly when they can connect, collaborate and create effectively. Given their rootedness and their commitment to public innovation, civil society organisations are both the source and pivot for imaginative leadership that can bring about change in South Africa.
Systemic chokes are the failures of policy, whether by design or consequence, that hinder the ability of individuals and communities to access and leverage innovation for human development. These systemic chokes often take the form of social ills, such as binge and heavy drinking and gender-based violence, or of institutional systems that exclude marginalised groups from equitable access to welfare services and mobile data.
Poor communities are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change than other population groups. The poorest members of our society often live on the most damaged land and in the most polluted neighbourhoods. Many people are without access to clean air, water and services. This is further exacerbated by the impact of climate change on rising food prices, crop failures and water shortages. We must support communities by tackling the systemic failures that make them vulnerable while drawing on traditional and new scientific knowledge to equip them to protect the environment.
Investment in young children may be the single greatest opportunity to escape the inequality trap. The first five years of a child’s life lay the groundwork for their lifelong development – a crucial period where access to early learning, good nutrition, care and safety can set a child on a pathway of compounding positive effects as they enter school and beyond.
The physical height of our children is a leading indicator of the future health of the nation, its social stability and its economic prospects. Yet we are trapped by poor nutrition that damages children before they go to school and impacts them into adulthood.
Give every child the benefit of early childhood development.
Investing in reading and numeracy is an opportunity to transform the lives of a generation of children. We know that early learning deficits erode the benefits of formal education, so shifting these trends will require investments in early learning interventions that focus on proficiency in reading, writing and counting.
Children thrive in environments where they feel safe, are nurtured, protected and loved, and where their caregivers are supported to play an active role in their lives.
Make sure every child is ready to read and do maths by the time they go to school.
every child.
Even when young people complete their matric, many of them progress through the schooling system without the basic numeracy and literacy skills that employers and the labour market expect. Therefore, we need to address the dynamics failing our learners.
In South Africa, tapping into social networks is the most common way of accessing work - but most young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) lack the connections to access opportunity. We need to expand and enhance connections to the world of further learning and earning.
Less than half our children complete matric and only about one in six school leavers will become a skilled worker. This is why we need youth-centred support that ensures young people are on pathways to productivity and do not become discouraged from leaving school and finding employment.
DGMT views itself as an enabler, drawing on the work and experience of civil society organisations and other implementing partners and funders. It holds a privileged position as an independent foundation, with windows into the work of partners in local communities and relatively good access to policy-makers, the media, private sector and other investors. We are constantly aware of and inspired by the commitment and energy of those in our networks for change.
1. Kingdon, J. 2003. Agendas, alternatives and public policies. New York: Pearson.
2. Statistics South Africa. 2017. South Africa demographic and health survey 2016: key indicator report. Report no. 03-00-09. https://www. statssa.gov.za/publications/Report%2003-00-09/Report%2003-00-092016.pdf
3. Van der Berg, S. et al. 2019. The cost of repetition in South Africa. Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP13/2019. https://www.ekon. sun.ac.za/wpapers/2019/wp132019
4. Adapted from Christensen, C. 2002. The innovator’s dilemma. Boston, MA: Harvard Press.
5. Centola, D. et al. 2018. Experimental evidence for tipping points in social convention. Science 360, pp. 1116–1119. doi: 10.1126/science. aas8827
6. West, G. 2017. Scale: the universal laws of life and death in organisms, cities and companies. New York: Penguin Press.
7. Deaton, A. 2013. The great escape: health, wealth, and the origins of inequality. Princeton University Press.
8. Hall, B.L. 2013. Knowledge, democracy and action: an introduction. In: B.L. Hall et al. (eds). Knowledge, democracy and action: community–university research partnerships in global perspectives. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
9. Deaton, The great escape.
10. Garcia, J. et al. 2017. Quantifying the life-cycle benefits of a prototypical early childhood program. NBER Working Paper No. 23479. https:// heckmanequation.org/www/assets/2017/01/w23479.pdf
11. Engle, P. et al. Strategies for reducing inequalities and improving developmental outcomes for young children in low-income and middleincome countries. Lancet 2011(378), pp. 1339–1359.
12. Chetty, R. et al. 2022. Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility. Nature 608(7921), pp. 108–121.
13. Resources available at UN Environment Programme. 2022. https://wesr.unep.org/
DGMT is a South African foundation built on endowments from Douglas and Eleanor Murray to promote charitable, educational, philanthropic and artistic purposes within South Africa. Douglas Murray was the son of, and successor to, John Murray, the founder of the Cape-based construction company, Murray and Stewart, which was established in 1902. This company merged in 1967 with Roberts Construction to become Murray & Roberts, with the parent Trusts as the main shareholders. In 1979, the Trusts combined to form the DG Murray Trust as the main shareholder before the company was publicly listed. Subsequently, the Trust relinquished its ownership to a major finance house. Eleanor Murray remained actively engaged in the work of the Trust until her death in 1993.
The Foundation is now the holder of a portfolio of widely diversified assets, which reduces the risks in funding the achievement of its strategic objectives. DGMT currently distributes about R200-million per year and leverages and manages a similar amount of funding through joint ventures with other investors.
DGMT’s ultimate goal is to create an ethical and enabling environment where human needs and aspirations are met; where every person is given the opportunity to fulfil their potential, for both personal benefit and for that of the wider community. By investing in South Africa’s potential we aim to:
ɸ Create opportunity for personal growth and development that will encourage people to achieve their potential.
ɸ Help reduce the gradients that people face in trying to seize those opportunities.
ɸ Affirm the value and dignity of those who feel most marginalised and devalued by society.
TRUSTEES Mvuyo Tom (Chairperson) - John Volmink - Ameen Amod - Shirley Mabusela
Murphy Morobe - Hugo Nelson - Maria Mabetoa - Diane Radley - Michael Kahn
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER David Harrison
