South Africa: Glencore Mine officially handed over a workshop to the Municipality on 30 March, worth 8.7 million. This workshop will ensure that the township economy is boosted as it will accommodate SMMEs of Mhluzi Township under one roof.
In his remarks, the Executive Mayor, Cllr Mhlonishwa Masilela, said that, “This is a realization of the Municipality’s objective of creating projects that directly benefit communities. Through this project, the small business owners will be transformed into fully fledged businesses because it’s not only about the working space, but they will also be trained on aspects of business management, marketing and quality management of their products.”
“Who knows, the quality of the products produced here may find their way into bigger markets than had been anticipated. Job creation is another winner at this industrial park as each entity will grow in their scope of productivity as demand will rise as they reach out to different markets beyond the province, and they may find themselves trading nationally and internationally,” too,” vowed the Executive Mayor before unveiling the plaque and cutting the ribbon to officially declare the phase 2 industrial park open.
This was in line with the Municipality’s Integrated Development Plan to create the right conditions for enterprises to start, grow, and expand.
It has always been vested in the Municipality’s vision to build industrial workshop facilities with the objective of informal housing businesses operating within the township of Mhluzi succeeded.
“This partnership was aimed at improving the ease of doing business and supporting small businesses, saw R22.2 million raised for the construction of seven industrial workshops in Mhluzi, Industrial Park node D,” the Executive Mayor further noted.
The first phase of the workshops was launched in November 2020, and it was a joint collaboration between Anglo-American Coal, Exxaro, and Arnot Opco Mine. They constructed seven workshops, providing facilities for emerging businesses operating in areas not designated for business purposes, particularly in the auto body and motor repair, manufacturing and textile industries.
“This will assist these traders in running their businesses and becoming more economically viable. To further boost the local economy, the project used the services of emerging contractors based in Mhluzi to construct a workshop,” concluded the Executive Mayor.