23 June 2011

Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele, recently underscored its success in developing entrepreneurs and small and medium business when it recognised the individuals and organisations from its best performing funded businesses at an awards ceremony, held on 23 June 2011 at the Sandton Convention Centre.

The awards formed part of Anglo American’s Local Procurement and Enterprise Development Trade Fair, which brought together the company’s large local, domestic and multinational suppliers, as well as Zimele’s small and medium enterprises, in order to network and articulate their business case.

Throughout its 22-year history, Zimele has created numerous sustainable, commercially viable enterprises, and empowered entrepreneurs to operate in the mainstream economy. Through its four funds, Zimele has invested R467 million into 845 businesses, which collectively employ 15,851 people.

Zimele Managing Director Nick van Rensburg acknowledged the achievements of the winners, and noted that their success aligned to Zimele’s core objectives.

“On behalf of Zimele, I would like to congratulate all the awards winners. These businesses and individuals have displayed a considerable propensity for business talent, accompanied by the necessary drive, commitment and work ethic. Their undoubted business success and development is testament to the fact that  Zimele is succeeding in its goal of developing and nurturing commercially viable and economically sustainable businesses, and making a real difference.”

The winners emanated from four different categories, namely, Supply Chain Fund Best Performing Businesses, Community Fund Best Performing Businesses and Achiever Award, Olwazini Fund Best Learner and Business Performer, and Anglo American Khula Mining Fund Award for the Best Performing Business Overall.

• In the Supply Chain Fund Best Performing Businesses category, Foodworx, a catering company, were the winners in the large category (annual turnover >R20m), AEF Mining, refurbishes buckets used in mining, won the medium category (annual turnover R10m-R20m), Baubu Transport, transports mine employees, won the small category (annual turnover <R10m), while Kram Engineering, manufacturers of resistant tile ceramic lining, won the category for Best Performing Business Overall.
• In the Community Fund Best Performing Businesses category, The Greener Fertiliser, manufactures, packs and exports fertiliser sticks, won in the large category (annual turnover >R2m), Lerumo La Basadi, a cleaning company, won in the medium category (annual turnover R350k-R2m), Tabea DM Trading & Projects, which grows and sells vegetables, won in the small category (annual turnover <R350k), and Dr Lorna Maphuthuma Medical Practice, a General Practitioner, won the achiever award.
• In the Olwazini Fund category, Patrick Natal Ntombela of Sondela Photography and Entertainment, a photographer, won Best Learner, while Ntombekhaya Nonjaca of Oxy Trading 768, a funeral undertaker, won in the Business Performance Category.
• African Nickel, explorer for nickel, won the Anglo American Khula Mining Fund Award for the Best Performing Business Overall.

Van Rensburg concludes that the awards are a crucial component of Zimele’s functioning capacity. 

“The awards serve as a great motivation for those funded companies within Zimele, providing good role models, and a target from which these businesses and individuals can measure their progress and personal growth. It also ensures that consistently high standards are maintained, and ultimately encourages a culture of excellence among our funded business entities.”

For further information, please contact:

South Africa
Hulisani Rasivhaga, Media
Tel: +27 (0)11 638 4401

Editor’s Notes:

For over 22 years, Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele has created numerous sustainable, commercially viable enterprises and empowered entrepreneurs to operate in the mainstream economy.  Through its four funds namely the Supply Chain Fund, the Anglo American Khula Mining Fund, the Olwazini Fund and the Community Fund, Zimele has interests in a diverse portfolio of enterprises, with a collective annual turnover of R1,8 billion.

The model used by Zimele has been so successful, that it has also been adopted by many global and local players, some being the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group; Mondi, De Beers and Barloworld.

Zimele operates four funds, namely:

• The Anglo American Khula Mining Fund,  which manages mining-related investments;
• The Supply Chain Fund, which focuses on procurement and business development opportunities for black-owned and managed SMEs within the Group’s supply chain;
• The Community Fund, which supports entrepreneurs and small businesses in the communities in which Anglo American operates; and
• The Olwazini Fund, which assists women, the disabled and young people to establish and run their own small businesses in Anglo American’s mining communities.