Rotary Club Boksburg closes its doors

Rotary Club of Boksburg, one of the oldest charity organisations with impactful outreach programmes for Boksburg residents, met its sad end on June 30.
The club, which would have been 85 years old in August, lost its long-standing battle to increase support and membership.

The club president, Derek Fox, said the closure is an inevitable consequence of the lack of support from society, in particular getting participation from new generations to take over operations.

To avert this situation, for many years the club focused on getting new members and making participation in community service a lifelong habit.
Their efforts also included attempts to recruit teens and young adults through Interact and Rotaract targeting high school and college students. These intervention tactics did not yield any members.

At the time of the closure, the club only had four members – the president Derek Fox, club director Dana Oosthuizen, youth director Lebo Makhathini and services director Rod Genricks.

“Many of the guys in the club when I started were business owners, doctors, lawyers, and community leaders, but as the years went by the left and no new members joined us. The club got older and older and eventually, we reached this sad point.
“Rotary is a fantastic organisation. It was a brilliant time of my life but has now come to an end. I’m upset that there wasn’t enough support to keep the club doors open,” said Fox.

What the future holds for members
The remaining members are planning to form a food and wine club, which doesn’t belong to a big organisation like Rotary. Fox pointed out that their new organisation will also be involved in community outreach programmes and they will also be looking for new members.

“This will help us to keep going. Maybe in the future there will be chances of starting the club again, but we would not even say that for now because we don’t know what the future holds for us.”
Fox pointed out that an informal dinner had been organised to mark the occasion. He thanked all those who have been involved in uplifting the community of Boksburg.

Highlights
Since its inception in the 1930s, the club had been involved in many projects designed to uplift the community and also empower people with much-needed support and skills to start and manage businesses.

Among the community initiatives and support that had been the highlights of the Rotary Club of Boksburg are the establishment of Horizon Clinic, Bokkie Park, Kangaroo Mother Care Lodger Facility at Tambo Memorial Hospital, the skills transfer programme for the youth, the school bag project for needy children, along with thousands of other community initiatives and support.

Fox said the club programmes also offered educational upliftment for the youth, especially those who wanted to start their own businesses or join major corporates.
Failure to give back

“My biggest concern is that even those who during their youth benefited from the programmes and became successful demonstrated a lack of interest in the club and community services.
“We are very sad about this occasion, but it became inevitable. You know we like to say when one door closes a new one opens, but we are not sure what new door will open. We thank the Boksburg community for their support. I suppose there is a time to come and a time to go, yet nobody leaves forever.”

The Rotary Club of Boksburg Lake remains operational.
A few months ago, the Boksburg Lion’s Club also announced the closure of its branch, citing dwindling membership as the reason for the decision. Imminent demises of several other important organisations have been predicted.

Rotary branches
According to Fox, Rotary has three districts in South Africa and the Boksburg club is part of the 9400 branch with about 70 clubs of 1400 members in total that covers Gauteng, Mpumalanga, eSwatini, Botswana, and the southern part of Mozambique.

Members of Rotary are obliged to pay about R3 600 per year as a subscription fee to be a Rotarian. According to Fox, in return, Rotary Foundation spends multi-billion rands on projects designed to uplift communities in Southern Africa.
“The subscription fees paid by members in the region are almost next to nothing compared to what the participating countries benefit from the Rotary International Foundation.”

Historic moments in pictures
Here is a collection of photos highlighting the most significant historic Boksburg Rotary Club events, with some dating from the 1930s.

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