Reg Rumney reports on an innovative union scheme to help retrenched miners create jobs
A TRAIL-blazing union-initiated job-creation centre is already pumping R40 000 a month into the rural community in which it operates.
The National Union of Mineworkers’ Mhala Development Centre was launched in the former Gazankulu in the Eastern Transvaal at the beginning of this month.
The centre already has a poultry supply unit which supplies the community with up to 2 000 chickens a week, translating into a monthly gross surplus income of R40 000. This, as NUM Development Unit co-ordinatory Kate Philip points out, is no mean feat in terms of rural development strategies.
“About 66 people are selling an average of 30 birds a week — earning an average of R600 a month — more than the minimum in the mining industry. And they started with a mere R300 micro-loan.”
The centre is the second such project of the Development Unit. A similar centre was launched recently in Mount Ayliff, Transkei.
The scheme arose after miners retrenched from Amcoal’s Arnot Colliery organised themselves and other community members into village-based enterprise associations to create jobs for themselves.
The centre will train people in semi-skilled activities such as making bricks, roof tiles, furniture, gravestones, juices, polish, detergents and candles.
The initial capital for the Development Unit, according to the union, came from the jointly controlled Amcoal/NUM Job Creation Fund, set up as part of the retrenchment agreement with Anglo American’s Amcoal.
Anglo says the fund was initially allocated R1-million. A further R1,7- million has been contributed since it was set up, and around R600 000 has already been spent on projects, of which the Mhala Centre is the largest.
The core activities of the centre will be self-financing. It is owned and controlled by the Mhala Development Centre Trust, in turn controlled by representative of local enterprise groups, community members and the NUM.
The centre shows a shift in the way the NUM is approaching the use of retrenchment funds, to benefit as many people in the affected community as possible.
Also, says Philips, the centre provides a base for research and development into other local economic possibilities.
“We’ve already commissioned research into the economic uses of marula berries and four other indigenous berries widely available locally.”