Local skills and expertise played a key role in helping to develop a marginalised community during the development and construction of platinum miner Anglo American Platinum’s (Amplats’) new chrome recovery plant, according to project engineering, procurement and construction company Logiman.

The company was responsible for the Front-End Loading 3 study, design, development, construction and commissioning of the chrome plant at Amplats’ Thabazimbi-based Amandelbult complex, in Limpopo.

The plant is co-owned and -operated with the local Baphalane Ba Mantserre community.

Logiman sourced available skills and expertise from local communities before outsourcing to or subcontracting companies not associated with the local community.

Logiman chairperson Sharadh Padayachi explains that, in any community, there are people who have a natural talent for aspects such as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civils and construction, marketing and advertising, besides others. These talents and skills are the result of communities’ developing internal resources to solve localised problems.

He says that Logiman was not hindered by the fact that most of the community members with such natural talent and skills did not have formal qualifications. In this regard, the company worked with members of the community in determining their areas of interest and expertise.

This involved a somewhat lengthy process of liaising with community leaders and members to unearth this natural talent and develop it into tangible skills that could be used during the design, construction and commissioning of the plant.

“You have to trust that [such] people will surface in a community. Sometimes they develop into successful small entrepreneurs who can be easily identified . . . and other times it is a bit more difficult to find this natural talent and compulsion to solve problems,” says Padayachi.

Logiman MD Krzysztof Szymczak says it is the role of Logiman, and similar major contractors, to find and nurture this talent, as well as include local communities in key projects.

In the development of the relationship between the community and Logiman, the company invited the community elders, led by Kgosi Paul Ramokoka, to participate in the initial stages of the project, thereby developing a robust foundation on which the project could proceed under mutual understanding.

The presentation was given by the various engineers within the organisation in the language of the community – Tswana. This allowed the elders to express their expectations as well as to give our young engineering team insight into understanding the community’s perspective.

The company employed a BSc-qualified teacher with about 12 years’ experience
“ . . . as an interface to try to grasp the engineering concepts . . . and, by virtue of the teaching experience, to pass it on to the community, and let them know what we required in terms of engineering to construct the plant according to Anglo American’s design standards,” he explains.

Further, Logiman tried a different approach by liaising with community leaders, where local businesses were involved in such a way that, once the project was completed, they would be able to continue operating and obtain new work having acquired new experience and expertise.

From its project budget of R330-million, Logiman invested R30-million directly in the local community through the companies chosen to work on the project.

All members and companies from the local community that assisted with the plant received letters of recommendation from Logiman as testament to their competence.