What does the foundation do

The Robert Gumede Family Keni Foundation (RGFKF) was formed in 2010 and is a wholly broad based black empowerment trust with its primary role being to contribute to vulnerable communities. The underlying premise of the trust is being able to give back to these communities and thereby creating sustainable development and adding value to the society at large.

The Foundation was initiated by its chief patron Robert Gumede, a respected entrepreneur and established business man in South Africa. Having been the product of a vulnerable community and a single live-in domestic mother Keni, and grandmother Memede. Both these strong female role models were responsible for raising him and instilling in him the values of community, family and social responsibility.

Mr Gumede who comes from Nelspruit, Mpumalanga has been a strong advocate for development in this province. He has contributed through his various business interests and in person towards community based projects. He has strongly campaigned for the last eight years for the establishment of a university which integrates a medical school to serve the over five million citizens of Mpumalanga.

Dr Portia Gumede, Mr Gumede’s wife, heads the Foundation. Dr Gumede who trained in Kwa-Zulu Natal has a special interest in community health and education. Her experience in working with vulnerable communities in Kwa –Zulu Natal enables her to strategically focus funding to projects that will have a measurable impact on the communities the projects are based in. In addition she has a special interest in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and the access to anti-retroviral drugs to those in need of them. Her fervent belief that in knowledge lies the key to not only success but to a greater development of communities is also underpinned by the fact that she has focused funding towards tertiary education bursaries.