Limpopo Business 2017-18 edition

FOCUS De Beers Venetia

FOCUS De Beers Venetia Mine Economic Development and Procurement At the heart of building local businesses. De Beers Venetia Mine is adopting a multi-faceted approach to supporting and incubating local businesses. From partnerships with agencies and business development training programmes and joint ventures, the mining company is working to ensure that economic development and job creation become a reality for the wider community of businesses and entrepreneurs in which the mine operates. The company’s goal is to incubate 50 local businesses in 2017 and to continue on that trajectory into 2018 and 2019. A partnership with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) has already paid off in the sense that detailed training sessions are empowering local business people. One such participant, Buto Tabengwa from Musinabased B-Graphics and IT Solutions, reported, “The training has been mind-blowing. This group has certainly been empowered through the knowledge they have downloaded – well done to De Beers for putting local business on the map.” Topics dealt with in training included costing and pricing, access to funding and banking as well as joint ventures and cash-flow management. Gregory Petersen, De Beers Consolidated Mines Supplier and Enterprise Development Manager, explains the rationale, “By collaborating with industry leaders such as Seda we maximise the impacts of our Enterprise Development Programme and deliver smart, meaningful services to local companies which, with coaching and support, could become suppliers to Venetia Mine in the future.” Addressing a Business Breakfast at the Diamond Club in March 2017, Venetia Mine Assistant General Manager, Hendrick Matjila, discussed local procurement as well as supplier and enterprise development strategies. “Business cannot exist in isolation,” he said. “At Venetia Mine we are cognisant of the fact that we cannot sustain our operation without ploughing back in our communities. We know that if we are to achieve our goal of leaving a lasting legacy beyond the life of Venetia Mine, it starts with supporting local enterprises and developing our entrepreneurs and small businesses.” LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2017/18 54

FOCUS Guests, who included members of the Musina Business Chamber and Musina Local Municipality, representatives of the Beitbridge and Zoutpansburg Chambers of Commerce and the Musina Youth in Business Forum, discussed collective ways to turn Musina around together. Strategy Venetia Mine’s procurement team has successfully completed the following initiatives in recent months: De Beers community fair: Crowds of local business people and entrepreneurs visited the Supplier Development and Zimele exhibits, giving them an opportunity to understand the requirements for doing business with Venetia. Community SMS database: The Community Fair creates the opportunity to build a database of over 100 potential suppliers in Musina and Blouberg who the mine can now communicate with directly regarding business opportunities. Opportunities specifically targeting local business: HDSAowned entities are sought which can provide products and services such as supplying kitchen consumables, electric fencing, rodent and pest control, manpower required during shutdowns and emergency repairs and ad hoc work in the treatment plant, repairs on tyre protection chains, cleaning services and alien plant control. Community-focussed marketing strategy: A comprehensive campaign has been launched on local radio stations Mohodi FM and Musina FM, local newspapers such as the Polokwane Observer and the Northern Gazette and on posters at local municipalities, tribal offices as well as public areas such as post offices. Supplier Development Programme At the end of the second quarter of 2017, a total of 226 local businesses had expressed their interest in being involved through the mine’s Local Procurement Drive. Of these, 58 companies were shortlisted and fifteen local companies were awarded contracts, with another seven to follow shortly afterwards. Thirty-seven of the targeted 50 opportunities had already been launched by July, and a further seven were due to be rolled out in the third quarter. The focus for these vendor opportunities is in: • road maintenance and construction • repairs to bund walls • cleaning at the Venetia Primary Crusher • Venetia Mine takeaway canteen • supply of LDV tyres, batteries and rims • small civil works at Venetia Underground Project • construction of the HTTS building at Venetia Underground Project. Six local companies have an established relationship with the Venetia Mine and they are already enrolled in the Supplier Development Programme. As companies win contracts, they are added to the programme. Entrepreneurs or companies who have been unsuccessful in application or in tendering are encouraged to participate in the De Beers Incubator or other initiatives. The Seda programme is an example of such a support programme. Bussing Empowerment Deal The Venetia Mine and VM Diamond Transport have called for locally owned businesses in the Musina area to put their names forward to be 40% shareholders in bus companies covering the Musina and Blouberg areas. An empowerment initiative aimed at Historically Disadvantaged South Africans (HDSA), the plan is for an eight-year contract to transport workers to the mine at the centre of a share purchase agreement. Technical training will be provided by VM Diamond Transport as part of a two-year business development programme and the local partners are expected to become majority shareholders within a five-year period. Similar opportunities in the broader transport sector include a partnership with Bridgestone, Global Wheel and Willard to establish a locally owned distribution centre for tyres, rims and batteries that will service Venetia Mine and the wider community. 55 LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2017/18