The North West province’s Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela Tribal Authority (BBKTA) and Sedibelo Platinum Mines (SPM), the mining house that owns and operates the Pilanesberg platinum mine (PPM) in the mineral- rich BBK area, celebrated the strengthening of a partnership established seven years ago at an event last month.

Designed to boost the socioeconomic development of the BBK region, and the exploitation of its mineral resources to the benefit of the region and its people, the partnership has identified a number of large-scale initiatives for the area.

These include a water project in Pilanesberg West, a housing development project in Lekutung, a sewer pipeline project to connect PPM and the Sedibelo Corridor villages to the Moruleng water treatment plant and a road infrastructure project focusing on the Legkraal–Motlhabe road.

The partners also plan to launch a campaign to attract investors and educate communities in the region on the value inherent in the exploitation of mineral resources.

“This collaboration has the potential to turbo- charge the steady progress that we, as the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela community, have been making towards real, genuine upliftment in the face of many and varied challenges,” said BBK community leader Kgosi Nyalala Pilane at the event.

He added that the BBK hope to engender a sense of ownership among those affected by mining- related developments, which is the vast majority of people in the region.

The identified projects are intended to dovetail with the socioeconomic development aspirations of both the BBK master plan and the resolutions of the SPM board.

These include integrating their respective improvement projects to best address the development agendas for the region and ensure that its mineral resources benefit the entire population of the area.

“We have been working with the BBKTA since we broke ground at PPM seven years ago, and we have to date contributed over R50-million to community projects,” said SPM acting CEO Erich Clarke.

He noted that, instead of initiating separate projects, SPM would merge its resources to provide an integrated approach to the development of the region.

This should result in significant infrastructure projects that would benefit all members of the BBK communities,” he pointed out.

Mining is one of the economic pillars of the BBK master plan, along with tourism, manufacturing and agricultural development.

Under the leadership of Pilane, the area has, over the past eight years, begun to benefit from the establishment of projects in these sectors, as well as from numerous results-driven programmes in areas such as health, education and skills development.

Moruleng is a densely populated rural area on the north-eastern border of Pilanesberg and is home to the BBK community, comprising about 350 000 people residing in 32 villages.