Gibela is committed to the community
The only restriction is that everyone considered has to meet the minimum requirements.
Gibela Rail is committed to community engagement and empowerment at its new rolling stock manufacturing plant in Dunnottar.
Pamella Radebe, Gibela Rail’s spokesman gave answers on the Addie’s questions about the pleas of some local people who want to be employed at the new rolling stock factory in Dunnottar.
Read about their pleas.
She says Gibela is still at an early, formative stage of developing its operational requirements for the plant.
When finished the plant will manufacture 580 trains as part of the Prasa rolling stock programme.
Gibela’s longer-term economic development commitments, after the plant is established, do include local labour content.
Radebe says the company plans to better the skills of about 1 500 of its own employees and nearly 19 000 more.
“This is in an effort to capacitate not only Gibela but the industry as a whole and to enable the proliferation of rail-related skills as part of collective endeavours to revitalise the South African railway sector,” she says.
She assures people that as soon as the plant starts manufacturing these trains, graduates and artisans from the areas closest to the manufacturing site will be prioritised as preferred employees and participants in the various skills development programmes attached to it.
The only restriction is that everyone considered has to meet the minimum requirements.
Radebe says the recruitment of skilled labour as well as for candidates for the various “upskilling programmes” will be launched during the second quarter of 2016.
This will be before the the 2016 mid-year commencement of the manufacturing operations of the trains in the new plant.
“The company recognises the central and unique role communities will play in the successful execution of both its infrastructural development and operational needs of the plant,” she says.
“Gibela committed itself to a community engagement process with stakeholders throughout the 10-year duration of the rolling stock project.”
Radebe says this community engagement process will start as soon as Gibela has concluded the agreements with the preferred bidder that will be building the plant, as well as with Ekurhuleni metro.
A request for quotations for the bidder was launched in mid-November 2015 for the construction.
She says one of the principles guiding the selection of a construction company, which is still in progress, will be economic development, which determines that 97% of the jobs created must be filled with South African citizens, of which 90% must be black people.
The selected company will also have to do skills development, enterprise development and socio-economic development for local communities.
Other guiding principles in selecting a bidder include the price of the job being done, adherence to the construction schedule, and worker safety.
Radebe says specific details about the number of jobs to be generated during the construction process will be communicated once the bidder selection process is completed.
She estimates this process will be finished by the end of the first quarter of the current year.
