CEO sleepout: 'Show me another initiative that has raised R25m'

It’s a cold Thursday night on June 18 2015. We are out on Gwen Street, in Sandton, Johannesburg, where more than 200 chief executives have left their cushy beds and warm homes for a cause – the 702 CEO sleepout.

Big names from the private sector have gathered to experience what it feels like to be homeless on one of the coldest nights of the year.

Each chief executive has donated R100 000 for Girls and Boys Town – a charity organisation that rehabilitates the country’s youth.

So far more than R23 million has been raised. Even though some South Africans criticised the event as being an insult to street dwellers, these men and women are happy that at least something is being done.