sioc-cdt - the bbbee benchmark

Very impressive article on CCC's new BBBEE partner - which should help silence those critics who consistently question the company's integrity & credibility. The new CCC-SIOC-cdt partnership will certainly raise the profile & esteem of CCC in South Africa, as SIOC-cdt are the benchmark BBBEE community trust in the country.

Communities thrive in the hot, dry north

Anyone arriving at Sishen in the Northern Cape for the first time could be forgiven for thinking the softest thing about the place is the iron ore.

The area is hot, dry, flat and stony and, other than Tswalu, the most expensive game lodge in the country, it does not top the list as a must-see destination for tourists.

But it soon becomes clear something special is happening here. The place is busy - roads and houses are being built, people are studying, healing, teaching and, of course, mining. Nowhere is there the desperate look so common in a country with more than 25% unemployment. Because of the rich iron-ore deposits, the towns of Kathu, Northern Cape, and Thabazimbi, Limpopo, are booming and the areas around them are on a fast track out of poverty.

Mining law requires that by 2014 26% of all mines will be in the hands of the previously disadvantaged. In 2006, eight years before the deadline, 20% of Sishen Iron Ore Company (Sioc) was transferred to Exxaro, 3% to the Envision Trust and 3% to the Sioc Community Development Trust. As profits soared, so too did dividends and Kumba's empowerment partners could repay their debt and interest in record time, leaving them with unencumbered assets and enabling them to benefit the people who need it most.

Beneficiaries of the Community Development Trust (CDT) live around Kumba's mining operations in the Northern Cape and Limpopo. About 600,000 people in five identified communities will be supported by CDT operations in areas like healthcare, housing, education, welfare, conservation and enterprise development.

The Sioc CDT is a "super trust" that holds 3% of the Sioc on behalf of five beneficiary trusts.

These trusts generate ideas for projects for the communities they represent. Proposals are reviewed and sent to the board for approval. Since 2007, 58 projects costing R230-million have been approved and are in operation. They include food gardens, brick making, farming cooperatives, crèches, training and work programmes for the disabled.

The largest project funded to date was the building of five science laboratories and provision of mobile laboratories and technical kits, all of which cost R52-million. In another project, nearly 1000 mobile libraries costing R18.9-million were handed to the Northern Cape's education department.

A further 27 projects have been approved since June, including schools, early childhood development centres, community halls and cataract removal.

With the CDT now free of all indebtedness to Kumba, projects can start in earnest, but all will be carefully monitored and overseen to ensure they deliver sustainable benefit to the people who need it most.

In addition to the BEE schemes, Kumba has a massive social investment arm that far exceeds the social and labour plan programme in the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Regulations.

A local economic development team of eight people was set up to initiate and oversee programmes and help spend Kumba's money in the most sustainable, effective way for communities around the mines.

Rina Botha, Sioc's manager of local economic development, works out of the "business hub" in the town of Kathu, next to the Sishen mine. Botha works closely with the three local municipalities to establish and assess their most pressing social and labour needs and determine where Sioc can help.

The mining charter prescribes that 1% of net operating profit after tax must go to social and community development projects, but Sioc has consistently surpassed this.

With profits exceeding expectations last year, even more areas of need were identified to receive funding.

The business hub helps small businesses launch and stay afloat by providing flexible funding of up to R1-million and being a mentor throughout the process. Botha's walls are covered with photographs of the more than 50 successful small businesses in Kathu and further afield, such as a laundry, cleaning service, bakery, tuckshop and a construction company owned by a former mine employee, Joseph Kente, who now employs more than 43 permanent staff.

The operations have created over 400 permanent jobs since inception in 2008. On loans of R22-million, R34-million of turnover has been generated.

Healthcare is one of the areas of greatest need in South Africa, especially with HIV/Aids. In June 2008, Sioc partnered with the Department of Health to establish the Ulysses Gogi Modise HIV clinic next door to the primary healthcare facility in Kathu. The clinic was purpose built by Sioc for R4.5-million and can be moved to a more rural area if and when a state clinic is erected.

Clinic superviser Toekie Schoeman says up to 30 patients are treated each day. Communities from further afield are increasingly using the facility. Sioc puts about R480000 a month into the clinic and makes sure anti-retrovirals are always available if state-supplied stocks run out.

Sioc funds mobile health clinics in rural areas around Sishen, where people battle to get to town because of a lack of transport. A "soup" kitchen, supplying hot nutritious meals for needy people, has also been made available in nearby Dingleton. At the Thabazimbi mine in Limpopo, Kumba has sponsored the Thabazimbi Wellness Clinic.

Education in all its guises is a major need in the Northern Cape. Sioc has put a lot of effort into this. An early childhood centre - a preschool that stimulates and educates children aged two to six - primary schools and Hoërskool Kathu, as well as adult education and skills training are all catered for. Up to 30% of pupils at the impressive Hoërskool Kathu, which boasts award-winning teachers and state-of-the-art equipment, are subsidised by Sioc. It is a largely symbiotic relationship as the school has a strong technical department and focuses on maths and science. A good percentage of the school's children will probably end up on the mine.

Sioc has funded a training centre called Tshipi, in which adults from the communities can get a nationally accredited certificate in non-mining skills such as bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing and welding. If they are accepted for the programme, these individuals, up to 40 a year, get a monthly R2000 stipend in addition to accommodation and meals. Once they have their certificates, their skills can get them jobs anywhere in the world.

Gavin Ohlson, head of skills at Tshipi, says some graduates have gone to work in Canada. He says his latest instruction from Kumba management is to ensure each graduate has a paying job before leaving.

Kumba employees who are not functionally literate can enrol in classes at the training centre to learn to read and write. The centre is also used by mine employees who want to learn other skills and improve their earning ability. Computer and mechanical training is also offered.

Sioc, in a joint venture with Agriseta and organic goods provider Organimark, has developed an organic honey-producing industry outside Kathu, where thorn trees are particularly attractive to bees.

Ten previously jobless people have been trained to care for bees and harvest and bottle the honey. The aim is a sustainable project with each person having 100 hives from which to make a living through sales created by Organimark.

REPORTS BY TINA WEAVIND 19/11/2011

http://www.businesslive.co.za/southafrica/sa_companies/2011/11/19/communities-thrive-in-the-hot-dry-north