Students from Michaelis School of Art in Cape Town (aka the construction crew) spent the day on the beach at Thompson’s Beach Ballito on Sunday (December 12) teaching local beachgoers the fine art of sand sculpting.
This was part of Capitec Bank’s “The Live Free Project” – a series of free events located across the country in public spaces like parks and beaches that celebrate everyday simple pleasures like building sand castles or reading a book in a hammock under a tree. The bank is on a drive to encourage South Africans to live more economically-savvy and sustainable lives.
Capitec Bank’s Head: Strategic Communications, Charl Nel, says, “While the recession ‘officially’ ended last year, its hangover can still be felt in the form of stubborn debt, stagnant property prices and a higher cost of living. This, coupled with issues such as resource depletion and climate change, has prompted South Africans to seek out a simpler, less wasteful way of life. As an innovative retail bank that cuts down on its bank fees via the use of innovative technology, we encourage South Africans to rediscover life’s simple pleasures so they can enjoy a more financially secure quality of life.”
Via The Live Free Project, the bank hopes to motivate the public to cut back on superfluous spending by opting for practical and simple lifestyle solutions be it by growing their own veggies, working from home to save money on petrol or taking the kids to the beach to build sand castles instead of trawling the mall every Saturday morning.
Debt counselling
“It’s no secret: people have, in the last few years, spent too much money on clothes, cars and houses via their own means – or more likely that of their bank’s. And it all caught up with them, as the fact that 170 000 South Africans have applied for debt counselling suggests,” says Nel.
“To the average Joe, banking is a chore: The admin is time intensive, the fees are too expensive and the jargon is often too complicated to understand.”
But this does not have to be the case. “Technology has changed modern banking: it can be done remotely via the internet or mobile phone. And in Capitec’s case, because our business model uses sophisticated technology instead of manual labour, we have no need for a back office. This significantly reduces costs and means our clients have more money to use on the things that matter – like taking the family out for a meal or buying an ice-cream at the beach.”
The first Live Free Project incarnation kicked off in Durban on December 12 on Thompson’s Beach, Ballito, where an elite Sand castle Construction Crew – a bevy of UCT Michaelis Art School students – sculpted a collection of bespoke sandcastle designs including a mermaid, starfish, dolphin and seal for the public to view or have made to order anywhere along the beach.
For info: www.facebook.com/capitecbank.