At Capitec, every employee has the opportunity to be a CEO by putting the client first, acting with energy and taking ownership.
Team leader Sibabalo Magidigidi makes a difference by applying the principles of being a CEO at work and in his personal life too.
“Capitec’s CEO values have become my personal value system; I apply them at home and at the office,” said Sibabalo, who has been a team leader in Capitec’s Centralised Collections department since 2015.
For Sibabalo and his team, volunteering is a way of bringing them together and also helps them to live the CEO values.
“Helping others not only makes them feel valued, but it also requires my team and I to work towards achieving a certain goal together,” he said.
“The best part is that we actually get to learn things about each other that our current roles may not allow us to express at work, and this ultimately leads to us becoming a team that can trust each other.”
Sibabalo explains how working with less fortunate people makes you appreciate how privileged you are.
“After this realisation, as a team leader, I am left with a humble team that is more than willing to go the extra mile to assist a Capitec client. They now understand that some clients may be in a similar position to the people they help when volunteering.”
For the past 5 years, Sibabalo has donated his old clothes to organisations such as Emasithandane Children’s Organisation, a home for vulnerable children in Nyanga, and Ikhaya Old Age Home – one of the oldest homes in Gugulethu.
Sibabalo gets a lot of support from his colleagues. In February, he and his team held a drive to collect sanitary pads, “My colleagues and I collected more than 30 packs of sanitary pads in 2 weeks!” Sibabalo said. And in May, Sibabalo and volunteers from his team visited the children at Emasithandane and donated a 55-inch flat screen TV. The children were very excited to receive this gift as they can now watch their favourite TV shows after school.
For Sibabalo, it was his upbringing that made him determined to give back to those in need. “I was raised by a single, unemployed mother and every donation received would always go a long way. This has made me appreciate even the smallest things in life, especially because we lived in a remote part of the Eastern Cape,” he said.
“In my voluntary work, the energy comes naturally as these are tasks that are driven by love, the same goes for the ownership element. I think of those I help as the “clients”. And in doing so, they come first – true to Capitec’s CEO values,” Sibabalo explained.
