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South Africa: Mpuma's Mining Project to Empower Local Community
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BuaNews (Tshwane)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Sydney Masinga
Balfour
The Great Basin Gold Dipaleseng Thuthuka project aims to ensure that 60 percent of employees at the Burnstone gold mine in Balfour, Mpumalanga, come from the local community.
The project, which will be unveiled on Thursday, is a public private partnership (PPP) between Mining company Great Basin Gold Limited, the Dipaleseng local municipality, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Mpumalanga Education Department.
"This is a deliberate effort to [enable] the community to access jobs as they become available at the mine," said a company representative, Tsholo Serunye on Tuesday.
She said that when the mine opened in July last year, it was found that local residents lacked the technical skills needed at the mine.
School leavers also did not qualify for bursaries that were on offer.
The mining company has therefore decided to invest in the local community, starting at school level promoting Maths, Science, English, Accounting and Life Orientation subjects, said Ms Serunye.
Great Basin Gold has committed R15 million to the project over five years.
The project will be rolled out at six high schools, providing training and support to 550 pupils and 60 teachers each year.
The project's three main focus areas are academic training for pupils, subject training for teachers and accredited professional development courses.
President and Chief Executive Officer of Great Basin Gold, Ferdi Dippenaar, said skills and knowledge often became outdated in a fast-changing world.
"Technological advances and the flood of new information make it hard to keep up with what is going on.
"Life-long learning is the only way to remain competitive in the job market.
"You should invest in your own growth, development and self renewal," he said.
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The project will be launched at the Siyathemba multipurpose centre in Balfour.
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