Lephalale, 2 April 2014: The Limpopo MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism Seaparo Charles Sekoati today launched the Lephalale Enterprise Development (ED) Centre in support of black owned small businesses and entrepreneurs in the region.
Also present at the launch were Phuti Mahanyele, CEO of Shanduka Group; Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa CEO, Stephen Moore; Mr Mongezi Veti Exxaro Executive committee member and the General Manager for Safety Health Environment and Community, and Hlonela Lupuwana – Managing Director of Anglo American.
The ED Centre is a co-branded, multi-functional business hub and incubator partnered by Shanduka Black Umbrellas (SBU); the Sebenza Fund which is run by Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele; Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa (MHPSA); and Exxaro.
The partners have combined their respective strengths, expertise and resources to provide assistance and support to small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) in the Lephalale community that are more than 51% black owned with SBU focusing on businesses that are 100% black owned.
SBU will operate an incubator providing subsidised infrastructural support, on-going mentoring and training to 100% black owned businesses. The SBU incubator within the Lephalale ED Centre is the eighth incubator which SBU now operates around the country.
MHPSA and the Sebenza Fund are providing equity finance, loans and mentorship to support start-ups or expanding businesses referred to the hub. Exxaro (Grootegeluk Mine) will provide enterprise and supplier development opportunities within its supply chain to suppliers that are more than 51% black owned.
"This centre brings together a number capable organisations, each with a proven track record of contributing to economic and social development. Working together, we can make an impact far beyond what they could achieve individually.
"This is a principle that we have embraced as Shanduka Black Umbrellas. Our fundamental purpose is to collaborate with partners in the private sector, government and civil society to address the low levels of entrepreneurship and high failure rate of 100% black owned emerging businesses in South Africa," says Shanduka Group CEO Phuti Mahanyele.
"We have been a corporate citizen within Lephalale since 2007, and since the onset of the Medupi Power Station Project, a major imperative of our company has been community development. MHPSA envisages a thriving future for Lephalale that goes beyond the Medupi Power Station Project. The Enterprise Development Centre is a small yet significant way in which we are able to ensure sustainability within the community after the completion of the power station,” says Stephen Moore, Chief Executive Officer, MHPSA.
"With the opening of this new hub, we look forward to providing more support and improved facilities for the community for many years to come, while the new, more central location will allow entrepreneurs easier access to these opportunities," concluded Moore.
"Anglo American recognises the importance of enterprise development and that it can make a real and sustainable difference in improving the socio-economic conditions of South Africans. We understand that our responsibility extends beyond financial gain, and that we have a duty to effect positive change in the communities around our operations. It is for these reasons that Zimele was established 25 years ago, to create jobs by providing funding and support to previously disadvantaged South Africans with the aim to create commercially viable and sustainable businesses. We therefore have no doubt that the new business hub will be seen as a welcome addition to Lephalale," says Khanyisile Kweyama, executive director of Anglo American in South Africa.
"Exxaro strongly supports meaningful participation in the socio-economic transformation of South Africa and enterprise and supplier development is therefore a strategic focus area for the Company. The creation of small, medium and micro enterprises through enterprise and supplier development invigorates the local economy and promotes job creation. The overall objective of Exxaro’s enterprise development programme is to assist and accelerate the development, sustainability and ultimate independence of beneficiary enterprises. Exxaro is looking forward to a long and meaningful partnership with Anglo, Shanduka Black Umbrellas and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa in the Waterberg region," says Sipho Nkosi, CEO of Exxaro.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
SHANDUKA BLACK UMBRELLAS
The Shanduka Foundation supports Enterprise Development through the Shanduka Black Umbrella (SBU) initiative which was launched in 2009.
There are more than 180 businesses around the country that currently form part of the programme. Others have already graduated from the initiative and have taken their businesses to new heights.
For a small monthly fee, the SBU programme provides client SMMEs with a working environment and support services that enable them to thrive. Benefits include office space, computers, Internet and telephones, vehicles with drivers, a compulsory reliable bookkeeping service, training programmes, a structured mentorship programme and access to finance and procurement opportunities, when ready.
SBU provides corporate South Africa with an opportunity to improve their enterprise development and preferential procurement ratings which achieves the dual goal of meeting their B-BBEE scorecard requirements as well as the knowledge that their contribution goes towards the important goal of nation building through job creation.
www.shandukablackumbrellas.org
HITACHI POWER AFRICA
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Africa (MHPSA) part of the larger Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Group, and was established in March 2014. Within the worldwide MHPS Group, MHPSA executes the manufacturing, supply, construction and commissioning of fossil fuel-fired power plants as well as steam and gas turbines in the Southern African region. The company also supplies key components such as air quality control systems, coal mills and feeders and provides engineering services. MHPSA is currently executing the local content for two power plant orders from South African utility, Eskom. The projects comprise 6 x 800 MW Utility Steam Generators for each of the Medupi and Kusile Power Stations in Lephalale, Limpopo Province and Emalahleni, Mpumalanga Province respectively. In addition, the company is facilitating the transfer of technology, skills and investment into South Africa. MHPSA has also been contributing to the sustainable development of communities by operating business development hubs within the areas in which it operates and by assisting local entrepreneurs through seed and working capital and related support services.
www.za.mhps.com
THE SEBENZA FUND
The Sebenza Fund was created by Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele in partnership with the South African government’s Jobs Fund that is managed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). The Fund aims to create 8,000 new and sustainable jobs over the next three years and improve national enterprise development infrastructure by creating 30 new small business hubs in poverty-stricken areas with high unemployment.
ZIMELE
Since 1989, Zimele has successfully empowered numerous black Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs, and generated sustainable job creation and socio-economic development in predominantly peri-urban mining communities.
Zimele enables the companies it invests in to stand on their own feet and to grow through a strategic blend of financial support and incubator-style mentorship.
This is achieved through its six funds which provide business opportunities, training, capital and networking hubs for historically disadvantaged South Africans (HDSAs) and SMEs. These funds are the Anglo American Sefa Mining Fund, the Supply Chain Fund, the Community Fund, the Green Fund, the Sebenza Fund and the Godisa Supplier Development Fund.
Between 2008 and 2013, Zimele invested R921 million in 1,619 businesses which collectively employ 30,092 people. With 2,358 transactions during this time, the businesses’ collective turnover was approximately R4.5 billion annually. Zimele is committed to adding value to the country’s economy, and since its inception, the enterprise development initiative has been funding, advising and mentoring entrepreneurs in emerging businesses in impoverished areas across South Africa.
EXXARO (GROOTEGELUK MINE)
Through its Grootegeluk Mine, Exxaro has extensive business interests in Lephalale and supports the Lephalale Enterprise Development Centre in its role as a vehicle for supplier and enterprise development. More than 60 of its black-owned suppliers and SMMEs from community development projects have been identified to receive assistance from the incubator. In addition, a committee of local business mentors with extensive business skills will be formed to provide support to black-owned suppliers and SMMEs in Lephalale.
Issued on behalf of Shanduka Black Umbrellas