Authentic BEE: Tich Smith’s Liv Village getting richly deserved recognition.

LONDON — An evening with Tich and Joan Smith during their UK fundraising roadshow, was one of the most uplifting I can remember. This unlikely duo has unlocked practical solutions to addressing South Africa’s biggest challenges – caring for vulnerable children and boosting employment. Theirs is an incredible story, one which reaffirms the power of faith. From Saul’s Damascene experience through to millions of sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous, our world is replete with the life-changing impact of spiritual experiences. But one of the most profound you’ll ever come across is the story of the former KZN sportsman who starred on the cricket and rugby fields at the highest level. A deeply committed Christian, Smith’s spiritual experience transformed him from an addict without hope into the creative force behind Liv Village, the revolutionary social outreach project that is changing literally thousands of rural lives in South Africa. The 1 500 person project in KZN is about to be replicated in the Western Cape and Gauteng. And it has also attracted the attention of massive German logistics group DB Schenker, which has invited its widows and orphans-owned business vehicle to be its SA-operation’s BEE equity partner. The Smiths have created something that offers authentic and sustainable broad-based black economic empowerment. Inspirational. – Alec Hogg

We meet the most interesting people passing through London and here, at the moment, is Tich Smith, well-known cricketer, but today in a very different role.  Tich, what are you actually doing in the UK?

Alec, we’re here on a trip to nurture relationships with churches and people we’ve gotten to know over the last couple of years since we’ve built the village and to try to raise some funds for the village.

Let’s just talk about the village.

Liv Village is a village for orphaned and vulnerable children back home. We have 5.2 million, 12 000 are being orphaned every month and I believe that if we don’t do something about it, it’s going to have a hugely negative impact on the nation. Therefore, we’ve built this village in KwaZulu-Natal where we’re hoping to have 1 000 children and we’re hoping to build villages all over the nation. I believe that it could truly transform our nation.

It’s been around for a while, the Liv Village.

We started building in October 2010 and the first mums and children came on 9th of August, Women’s day 2011, so we’ve been going for six years.

It hasn’t been an easy ride.

Yes, it’s been an incredible journey. I truly believe that Jesus is the hope of the world and definitely for our nation at this time. I see him transform lives, so we come under attack about that, but the community’s well. The critical situation at home is not easy, but we’ve had an attack from our local community. Although, we feel strongly that we just need to love them and I believe that it could be a reconciliation, restoration story that our country desperately needs because we love that community and we know that it will become a place of abundance where women and children will roam the streets at night without fear of being raped and abused, that men and women will have jobs, that they’ll be able to sustain their families, peace and joy will return to the community because it’ll be a place where once again Jesus Christ will reign and rule. That’s our hope and our dream for that community and I believe that will become.

Joan Smith (pictured left), Tich Smith (pictured right).
Joan Smith (pictured left), Tich Smith (pictured right).

Now it made national headlines when the community turned against Liv Village in KwaZulu-Natal. When you say that you love them, what’s happened now, the reconciliation that you talk of?

I think there were many things that led to the riots and the attacks. I think there is a lot of pain and uncertainty, poverty, no jobs, nobody’s listening to them and they turn on those closest to them. So, they turned on us, but I really felt God said we needed to love this community. People were saying to us, “Get them into jail, how are you going to do this?” and we felt no, we must just rebuild and we must love this community. We know we can’t employ the whole community of 15 000 people, but we do believe that we can train and prepare them for the workplace and that’s what we wanted to do. So, we increased the training, we now have culinary schools, we have 40 chefs in  training, we started a welding school, we have machinists, we’re looking to farm and building things, so we can prepare our community for the workplace.

So, the background is that you decided or you were called to do this, to start a village in the middle of nowhere really in KwaZulu-Natal. How many orphans are there and how many people are actually involved in the village?

We have about 170 children at the moment. Slow coming on, the government or social development in Kwazulu Natal is saying that the ancestors are getting angry with them, but we’re working with them too. We believe that’s a spiritual issue and I believe that that’ll come down because these children need to be homed and when they see the fruit of these children’s lives being transformed, I think it’s very difficult to argue once you see results. We’ve seen broken children be restored and people that couldn’t read or write, young boys and girls, now they’re writing music.

They’ve just had a recording that’s hit the top of the charts in the UK, Live@Liv, which is a worship evening that we have, so yes, I think once we break those barriers, I think we need villages all over the nation. Alec, I think we will do that, I think there are some changes in government that we could possibly start to build in. Not only does it look after the children, but also it starts to create jobs in the communities in and around villages. We know we can’t rely on donations, so we started businesses and in these businesses we can train people and we can employ them, but all the profits will come back into the village to sustain the villages.

How many people are making a living now?

We have mothers, so in the village alone we probably have 250/260 people living, we employ 170 people in the village, we employ 1 200 people in the businesses right now. So, out of Liv and Liv alone, I suppose it’s close to 1 500 people that can look after families because of Liv and that’s been in the last five years.

It’s an extraordinary story. Is there a possibility that it can be repeated in other parts of South Africa?

Yes, we’re excited. We met with Mmusi Maimane and Helen Zille of the Western Cape and they’ve given us land just outside of Cape Town, so we’re busy with town planning and land usage change in Cape Town, we have land in Johannesburg, we’re taking over an organisation, 18 homes from Unilever around the country, so we’re excited about that and it’s exciting to see international companies like Unilever, DB Schenker, their BEE partners, the German logistics company, the second-biggest logistics company in the world. I have the privilege of meeting with Paul Polman on Saturday morning, him and his wife, Kim.

That’s the CEO of Unilever worldwide.

Yes, he’s the CEO worldwide. I met his wife, she came onto the village for three hours the other day, and so we meet with them for breakfast on Saturday. These people start to become aware of the situation, I think they all have the heart to want to change. I think South Africa’s at a time where people want to change, Alec, but they don’t know how or where and I think the village has been created, it’s transparent. It’s run with integrity and accountability, Deloitte are our auditors, so our books are there for anybody to see. I truly believe that if we look after everybody, my hope and my dream is that South Africa becomes known as the country that look after their children to the glory of Jesus Christ. If we can put a roof over every child’s head, give them a mother to love them, feed and educate them to His glory, the nation will be changed forever.

What kind of reception have you had here in the UK?

It’s quite tough in the UK, amazing support from the churches, but the  businesses and the funds in the UK now, if you’re aligned to any religious organisation, they’re very a-religious, if I may say it that way, they don’t want to be aligned with any Christian, Muslim, or any religious organisation, so funds are tough. But I feel and what we’re hoping for is that we can get many people giving small amounts, so we’ve launched a million club where we’re trying to get people to just give one Pound a month, one Dollar, one Euro and then we’ve also started, with the churches to try and get a thousand churches to give us £100, $100.00, or R1000. We have many people giving small amounts and I believe in that way things can become sustainable waiting for the businesses who will then in the medium to longer term sustain the villages going forward.

What you were saying about being the BEE partner of DB Schenker is fascinating because when BEE started in South Africa, part of the whole process was to try to empower communities. Clearly, that is something that the proof is in your pudding. Are you seeing other businesses or are you seeing the model that you’ve put together with DB Schenker being used, perhaps by other businesses in South Africa?

Yes, we would love to see it. I think what’s happened is, the BEE legislation is an amazing piece of legislation. It’s been abused in a way that individuals have stood in the gap for the previously disadvantaged of the nation. Liv Non-profit Company is a broad-based BEE, level A, category 1. The only beneficiary has been the mothers and the children on the village. Therefore, the non-profit owns the business which makes them level A, category 1 companies and that’s truly broad-based where you’re looking after the lowest of the low, widows, and orphans.

So, every single cent that would come from those companies where we’re BEE partners will go back into the village to raise these beautiful children. So, I’m seeing that if DB Schenker, owned 100% by the German government, owned by Deutsche Bahn, if we can be their BEE partners, I think it’s a wonderful example to be able to get other corporate companies and listed companies in South Africa, that we could become their BEE partners as well. Not “we”, but that the orphan and vulnerable children indirectly will be shareholders in those businesses, which I truly believe will sustain all these villages and be able to raise them with decent education, train them into jobs and that they could become valuable members of society.

Tich, before you did this, you were known by your sporting prowess, you were a very well-known cricketer and this is a long way away from that world, what drew you to this?

Alec, it’s a long story, but after I finished playing sport, I ended up in a home for alcoholics and drug addicts. I came to know Jesus, he restored my life, and as I paid back my debt and finished paying back my debt, I came to a place where I cried out to him one day. I said, “Surely there has to be more to life than this”. He went on to share this vision with me, to give me a vision to build villages for orphaned children that they would come to know him as their Father, create jobs for rural communities, so that they can sustain their families that the government would come and see why it works and we can point them to the cross.

It was a ludicrous vision, but I’m amazed now, seven years later, to see it unfolding before my eyes. We’ve had amazing relationships with both the ANC government in KwaZulu-Natal and now with the DA government in the Western Cape, so I don’t know where it’s going, but I truly believe that it could be a big factor in transforming the nation of ours.

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