Platinum miner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) on Wednesday announced that the contract with joint venture (JV) company Zizwe Batlase for the provision of strip-mining services at the Amandelbult Complex has been extended.
Zizwe Batlase is 51% owned by the local community of Baphalane through the Baphalane Community Trust, named Batlase.
Zizwe Batlase founder and chairperson Howard Maimela said that, through the partnership between Amplats and the Baphalane Community Trust, many job opportunities are created.
“We need operators for our trucks, excavators and other machinery. These are opportunities that locals can benefit from.”
Amplats senior social performance manager at Amandelbult Tshepo Kgasago, meanwhile, described the partnership as a model for how communities can be included to benefit sustainably from procurement opportunities in the mining sector.
“[The community] is now co-owner of a growing mining business and is now able to provide development and employment opportunities to the small businesses in the community,” commented the leader of the Baphalane people, Kgosi Manotshe Ramokoka.
He added that nongovernmental organisations involved in the communties are also directly benefitting from the profits generated.
“You can see how much the standard of living in our community has improved. Our people are now able to come up with many useful proposals, which will help this community to prosper,” Ramokoka enthused.
Zizwe and the trust have developed a system that enables community members to suggest development programmes that can be funded from the profits generated by the partnership.
Kgasago added that, through Amplats’ broader work on skills development, opportunities are provided for 18- to 35-year-old unemployed people so that they can join the workforce in local mining projects such as this one.
"We train welders so they can work in the community and start their own businesses. We also offer bursaries to youth to further their education and other study opportunities for adults.”
Amplats CEO Chris Griffith said the miner would use this partnership as a blueprint for future procurement practices.
“The long-term ripple effects of this partnership have [enabled] community residents to start their own businesses, [with] local contractors who were trained through our programmes now building houses for orphans and child-headed families, forming part of our extended programmes to improve living conditions for communities. This is the deep and meaningful contribution that we have been working hard to create,” he added.