Spring Valley is a housing estate in Emalahleni that is being built by a private property development company and Anglo American Coal SA to provide housing for employees
Anglo American built hundreds of homes to provide employees with housing, writes Sizwe Sama Yende.
Spring Valley is a new housing development in Emalahleni that would ordinarily not have been affordable for those who live there. Had it not been for Anglo American’s conception of the project, the company’s lower- and middle-income employees would be renting space in back rooms or contributing to the ever mushrooming informal settlements in the Mpumalanga area.
Now, 272 Anglo American Coal SA employees live in Duvha Park, in which Spring Valley is situated, outside Emalahleni, with amenities such as schools, churches, creches and shops.
Anglo American decided to start a funding model that would entail the business investing in a portion of the bulk services for the whole development. This R1.35 billion investment gave Anglo American Coal SA employees the ability to buy houses at a significant discount when they secured home loans through commercial banks. This model has been successfully introduced in similar housing developments in other parts of Emalahleni, as well as in Middelburg.
Anglo American Coal SA chief executive July Ndlovu says: “The housing programme enables the establishment of sustainable communities located in urban centres close to the company’s operations. It sets a new industry benchmark in terms of providing affordable employer-assisted housing. Anglo American and its South African business units have invested more than R5 billion since 2010 to improve employee housing and living conditions by offering a range of housing options that cater to the diverse circumstances and needs of employees.
“The housing programme gives eligible employees the opportunity to purchase their own homes,” he says. The company’s coal business, Ndlovu says, has invested more than R2 billion in housing over the past five years. Between 2010 and 2014, 414 houses were built.
“We want our employees to enjoy quality housing and living conditions, and we believe that offering attractive housing is key to attracting and retaining vital skills,” he says. Ndlovu says the benefits of promoting employee home ownership are two-fold – it supports the community, and the municipality also benefits from improved infrastructure. “For us, housing is a partnership for the future. It helps us make the necessary changes to benefit our people, and to ultimately bring this benefit back into our business. It’s a win win solution,” he says. The Spring Valley Housing Project was also funded in part by International Housing Solutions and the SA Workforce Housing Fund.
This fund was launched six years ago in South Africa and includes funding from North American and southern African organisations, including Citibank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Public Investment Corporation on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.