Under the watchful eye of the local chief, three sectors of society have joined forces to improve the lives of residents of a North West village
Roshila Pillay
Anna Moyo is harvesting spinach. It’s a scorching day, which makes her task a laborious one. The spinach she harvests sells for a mere 60c a kilogram but is a saving grace for this young woman, who could find no job after she matriculated.
Moyo is one of a group of Bapong villagers working at Itirileng, a development project initiated by the Eastern Platinum Mine (EPM). Tourists bypass the village on their way to Sun City, stopping only to admire the beautiful hills and terrain of the Hartbeespoort dam area in the North West province.
Bapong spans 8 259ha and comprises several smaller settlements Legalopa, Newtown, Skoolplaas, Oustad, Segwelane, Leokeng, Wonderkop and Number One.
Under the watchful eye of Shimeko Lucas Mogale, the headman and representative of King Bob Edward Mogale, who rules in these parts, a partnership has been formed to improve the lives of the villages’ residents.
The initiative took root when EPM approached Rand Afrikaans University’s (RAU) department of community development to assist the firm with development in the Bapong area. “We decided to do this as part of our social responsibilities programme. The main objective is to create economic activity and reduce unemployment,” says David Makhema, EPM’s social services manager.
EPM mines the land belonging to the tribal authority and in return pays the authority royalties for use of the land. The tribal authority was keen to develop the community and so RAU began identifying the community’s needs. “We want to develop this area for our people to make a living. For this purpose, the chief offered this land [in Bapong],” says Shimeko Mogale.
Together with the area’s tribal authority and RAU’s academic expertise, EPM has built a small business area called Bodirello, the farm Itirileng and the Kopano sports field in Bapong.
At Itirileng spinach, cabbage, lettuce, onions, tomatoes and celery are ripe for the picking. Other types of vegetables grow in rows and the farmers are planting more seeds.
Itirileng is a three-year-old project run by a group of six women and 12 men. A lack of expertise, proper fencing and hoses to water the vegetables are some of the problems preventing the proper running of the farm.
While the mine contributed resources to the project until recently, the farmers now have to take charge of the farm and either make it or break it. “The mine has stopped financial support,” explains Moyo.
Understandably, any business needs to have a kickstart and then gain momentum on its own. “At present we are trying to assist [both Itirileng and Bodirello] in getting on their feet. Marketing is a priority,” says Makhema.
The success of the development project hinges on attracting customers and tourists to Bapong. Mogale says the project provides essential services for the area’s inhabitants. This includes fresh farm produce, entertainment, doctors’ services and different retail outlets. The project is supposed to be sustainable once the farm and business area attract their share of customers, the business owners and farmers will be able to pay rent, a source of revenue that will then be ploughed back into further development.
The farmers are despondent about taking responsibility for the development of the community; it is a heavy burden. However, development has to begin somewhere and the tribal authority, RAU and EPM are determined to make the projects work.
There are plans on the drawing board for billboards and pamphlets to advertise the projects and other ideas to attract customers.
Marketing has proven to be the biggest stumbling block for the success of the development projects. Like most of the business and farm owners Neo Kgomo, Bodirello’s resident doctor, believes aggressive marketing to be the solution to making all the development projects successful.
She opened her practice three months ago, when Bodirello was established. “The response so far is slow but that is what I expected. We started from scratch and are still marketing the place.”
This seems to be the sentiment shared by most of Bodirello’s inhabitants. “Business is not really good it is quite slow,” says Pauline Sebapo, one of the owners of PPN LaCarte Meal. Sebapo agrees with her co-owner, Prudence Songwame, that things will improve with proper marketing of all the projects. “I think we can make it work,” says Songwame.
Kgomo believes the long-term effect of Bodirello will be a particularly beneficial one. “I think the Bodirello project is a good idea especially for this community,” says Kgomo.
She says people from the community normally travel to Brits every time they need to see a doctor. Besides the taxi fare, they have to pay R100 in consulting fees. Kgomo’s rates are slightly lower considerably lower for child patients.
Among Bodirello’s retailers are a caf, a plastic ware store, a hairdresser and a florist. The given name is fitting for a business area bodirello means “a place where people work”.
The most recent of the projects, Kopano, is intended to serve as a community sports field for members of the Bapong Sports Council. Mogale says the tribal authority is now looking for a person who can effectively manage and market all of the projects. The farmers and business people still have to receive further training in their respective fields.
However, this unusual alliance among a group of chiefs, a mining enterprise and an Afrikaans university has created an essential balance to work towards a common goal and could mean a lot for rural development.
“The need for development in rural communities is huge,” says Delene van Wyk, a community development officer at RAU. She outlines the key to community development: “One has to look at a three-way partnership, where a university can offer academic input, a business can offer finance and the development can form part of their social development programme and both parties work together with the community to empower them.”