JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s hard-pressed mineworkers – like sisters in the popular dance song – are now "doin' it for themselves", lifting themselves up by their own dusty bootstraps into a new era of affordable self-education and training.

The hitherto-low-profile Mineworkers Investment Trust (MIT) – which was established by the 300 000-member National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to improve the quality of life of members, former members, their families and communities in the mining, energy and construction industries – is investing some of the R368-million it has raised since its inception 18 years ago to create its own further education and training (FET) college.

The 500-graduates-a-year Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Centre – a MIT beneficiary which was named after top former NUM office bearer Barayi, who died in 1994 – is in the process of receiving full FET accreditation to equip mineworkers with the skills they need to engage with their employers.

The education initiative will enable mineworkers to improve their circumstances in the long term, says MIT COO Simphiwe Nanise, who features in a two-page advertorial in the latest 168-page bumper edition of the Mining Weekly magazine, which will also be distributed in delegate bags at the 2013 Investing in African Mining Indaba from February 4 to 7 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, where record attendance is expected.

All courses are available to union members free of charge, says Nanise, whose hope for the future is that South Africa reduces poverty and increases employment.

With campuses in both Yeoville and Midrand, the Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Centre generates income by providing conferencing, catering and accommodation services to the public, with top-up funding supplied by MIT to ensure training courses remain cost effective and within reach of civil-society structures.

Other MIT beneficiaries include the JB Marks Education Trust Fund, also for NUM members and their dependants; the Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA), which establishes entrepreneurial projects for retrenched NUM members; and the Sam Tambani research initiative, which is still under development.

“Educating our members is our main focus,” Nanise tells Mining Weekly Online.

The JB Marks Education Trust Fund, which has awarded more than 4 000 bursaries, has assisted black graduates to enter the mining, energy and construction industries. 

The MDA is establishing Marula Natural Projects in Mpumalanga, which produces marula oil for export to the US.

Other agricultural projects include various food-security programmes and a wool-producing enterprise.

“Through the MDA, we aim to increase the wealth of mining communities using self-empowerment,” says Nanise.

The seed capital of R3-million that NUM gave MIT in 1995 was invested in the Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC) and a portion of MIC’s dividends accrue to MIT, which in turn disburses the proceeds to the training centre, education trust fund and the development agency. With reporting by Yolandi Booyens