THESE gentlemen weren’t friends they just worked at the same company.
Every Saturday, they would meet at a kasi tavern to booze. The practice went on and on until one of them decided that enough was enough.
In March 2012, they formed Vukani, a social club. Today the club has 17 members – most of whom are soldiers.
Nzimeni Matinyane, Vukani’s communication manager, told SunStokvel: “We wasted a lot of money on booze every weekend, which didn’t help us at all. But now we are big savers.”
They don’t meet every month like other societies or stokvels do, but each member deposits their R500 contribution directly into their club account every month until December, when they share the saved money among themselves.
“We only meet every three months because some of us don’t like attending meetings every month,” Nzimeni said.
Failing to pay your society money in time – after the due date – means the club will deduct R50 from your savings which means, at the end of the year, you will get less money paid out than the others who weren’t fined – or weren’t fined as much.
After depositing the money into the club account, the chairman, secretary and treasurer receive SMSes from the bank notifying them of your payment.
All you need to do as a member is bring the three payment slips to the next meeting to verify your payment and savings.
They also play soccer as a team and challenge other social clubs on weekends to keep themselves fit.
In December, they plan to go on an outing to enjoy themselves.
