Daitz Foundation remembers quiet man behind KZN charities

Victor Daitz, the man behind the second-largest private charitable organisation in South Africa, was a simple Jewish businessman from Durban who wanted to give back to his community in any way he could.

Daitz was born in Johannesburg in 1913 to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. He studied at Leeds University before returning to join the family business, Natal Cotton and Woollen Mills, in Durban in the late 1930s. An astute businessman and investor in properties, shares, and other assets, Daitz was always philanthropical, and in 1984, he formed the Victor Daitz Foundation to facilitate his charitable endeavours.

“We know very little about his background because he was a quiet man, almost a recluse in many respects,” said Sam Abrahams, one of the original trustees of the Victor Daitz Foundation and its executive chairperson, who lived a few kilometres from Daitz when he was growing up.

In 1984, Daitz gathered a group of people to create the Victor Daitz Foundation with an independent board of trustees to help serve the people of Durban and KwaZulu-Natal.

“From 1984 until 1999, he donated a couple of properties to the foundation, and we met him regularly, about four times a year,” said Abrahams, “It was relatively small at that time. He died in 1999 after suffering from cancer for about the last five years of his life.”

After his death, Daitz’s extensive wealth was revealed as the foundation inherited a large part of his estate. It would be used to help not only the Jewish community in Durban, but the wider Durban community from childhood until old age.

The foundation assists more than 540 organisations, focusing on education and humanitarian projects benefiting the historically deprived. These include children’s homes and orphanages, old-age homes, support for the disabled, and educational institutions. Feeding schemes and medical-research associations also top the list, along with AIDS organisations.

“The Jewish community in Durban wouldn’t be able to survive without the Victor Daitz Foundation,” said Abrahams.

Gaynor Lazarus, the president of Durban Jewish Social Services, said that the Victor Daitz Foundation had helped it to look after Jewish community members who had fallen on hard times. “Whether it be a roof over their head or food on the table, or medical, educational, or mental-health needs. It allows us to function, basically. If it weren’t for the Victor Daitz Foundation, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”

“We try to raise funds ourselves,” Lazarus said, “but our community is tiny. The Victor Daitz Foundation has always been a valuable resource for us. It’s our biggest funder.”

Similarly, the foundation has played a pivotal role in the Durban Holocaust & Genocide Centre (DHGC) as well as Jewish old-age home Beth Shalom.

Mary Kluk, the director of the DHGC, said, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that without the Victor Daitz Foundation, the establishment and success of the DHGC wouldn’t have been possible. The trustees have always taken a keen interest in the important work of the DHGC, and though their extraordinary financial support continues to be invaluable, the foundation’s trustees are also a wonderful source of wisdom and guidance.”

Beth Shalom Director Louis Gordon said that the foundation had played a pivotal role in maintaining the organisation’s facilities. “It eases our financial challenges, and it plays a key role in keeping us running smoothly. Its support covers essential needs like maintenance, upgrades to rooms and facilities, and improved security. It has also helped modernise our shared spaces.”

“We still provide a substantial amount to the Holocaust Centre to keep it running,” said Abrahams. “And then, the majority of the money which we receive from our investments, we plough back into the general community.”

This has helped to build schools in the general area; generate massive feeding projects; and build and support a paediatric psychology unit at the Addington Hospital, the first of its kind in the province.

Abrahams said Daitz felt it was important not only to help the Jewish community, but also the wider community in KwaZulu-Natal. “Victor wanted us to provide education, particularly to non-white students or previously disadvantaged students in maths and science,” he said.

This led to the creation of the Vula Project, for which Hilton College provided the land for the foundation to build housing where teachers could live and receive training to improve knowledge of maths and science. “We have built houses on the grounds, and maths and science teachers from various parts of the middle of KwaZulu-Natal come here for courses. We then track the results they achieve in the education field,” said Abrahams.

“Victor always wanted previously disadvantaged people to have the opportunity to make a living,” Abrahams said. “He felt that that type of work would provide them with jobs and that they would at least be able to give their families assistance and support,” Abrahams said. “This is why the foundation has also expanded into providing education and training for people to become electricians and bricklayers.”

The foundation is also one of the largest feeders of disadvantaged communities in KwaZulu-Natal.

“One of the things important to us, the keystone to anything, is that there must be unquestioned governance ability in the people that we donate money to. Unless there’s proper governance, we won’t provide funding.”

Almost as important as the charity work the foundation does is the fact that when Daitz started it, he didn’t want the work to be done for publicity or glory.

“He didn’t want us to shout from rooftops. He didn’t want us to be standing in front of the press all the time. So, we do things quietly. That’s the way we want it to remain,” said Abrahams.