Heavy mineral sands extraction and refining company Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) awarded contracts to 12 local community enterprises and five joint ventures (JVs) in 2016, continuing its journey of empowering local businesses.
Demonstrating that it is serious about local community empowerment, the company has set a target that 20% of total annual contestable spend be awarded to local and host community vendors.
RBM says its primary contractors have made a valuable and commendable contribution to community development by entering into JVs with the company’s host-community enterprises. JVs are seen as a critical part of community empowerment by RBM, as they involve the transfer of skills without compromising RBM’s standards and operational requirements.
Industrial cleaning company FMD Industrial Cleaning owner Mduduzi Nsele, whose company assists with cleaning of spillages, tree felling and grass cutting at RBM, says the company’s support has been a big factor in his company’s success. “Contractors are given on-site training and business owners are given financial management skills.”
The support of local enterprises creates sustainability over the long term and true economic empowerment in communities, ensuring the benefits are felt widely and long after operations have come to an end, says RBM.
The development of entrepreneurial talent and business skills is a critical component of RBM’s preferential procurement strategy. RBM’s Business Development Centre and its predecessor, the Small Business Advice Centre, have for 30 years assisted small businesses in the area with loans, advice and knowledge sharing, training thousands in the process.
RBM MD Mpho Mothoa notes that no business operates in isolation. He posits that RBM’s ability to create a healthy and sustainable business is inextricably linked to an ability to forge close relationships with those who affect or are affected by their business – especially the communities which host RBM’s operations – and the company’s ability to secure social licence to operate.
“There is still a lot of work to be done to continue to empower our local communities with regard to procurement opportunities and this will only be achieved through good working relationships and partnerships between all relevant stakeholders. RBM will continue to forge partnerships of this nature with its traditional and primary contractors where more opportunities can be identified,” Mothoa adds. RBM is the South Africa-based subsidiary of global mining and metals company Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto Procurement leverages its global buying power while simultaneously maintaining the flexibility and agility necessary to support the needs of individual product groups and business units, and the economic development of communities in which it operates.