On Friday, potential candidates for the position of programme manager of the Bokamoso Ba Rona Initiative West Rand Agri-Industrial Programme gathered at Sibanye-Stillwater’s training academy at Glenharvie.
The mining house, the West Rand Development Agency and the Gauteng Infrastructure Financing Agency launched the project to re-establish a sustainable agricultural industry in the areas in the West Rand surrounding Sibanye-Stillwater’s mining activities. The Rand West Local Municipality, the FWRDWA, the Department of Minerals and Energy and the Public Investment Corporation SOC Limited are the other structures or organisations that are involved in the project.
As part of the project, Sibanye-Stillwater, the Merafong Municipality and the FWRDWA will make approximately 30 000 hectares of land available to facilitate the development of a provincial agri-industrial hub that will be centred around Merafong.
This initiative also includes a plan to establish a bio-energy eco-industrial park. As far as could be determined, this facility will be situated on the eastern side of Carletonville.
According to an official document on the initiative, Merafong was chosen for this part of the project because it currently has a significant amount of unused, mine-impacted land that could potentially be used for the production of energy or the commercial agricultural crops available. The mines also own unused and uncontaminated land available that could be used to set up an integrated agricultural value chain and stimulate commercial agricultural activities in the area, aligned with the regional initiatives.
The centred location of Merafong also has the potential for the aggregation of regional feedstocks, including organic waste, agricultural residue, agro-processing waste and other waste streams.
The project aims to facilitate the creation of a sustainable post-mining economy, create employment in the area through agriculture and develop and transfer skills with an emphasis on the creation of labour-intensive opportunities. It plans to accelerate transformation by creating opportunities and provide on-going development and training for the surrounding local communities. If all goes according to plan, the project will also facilitate comprehensive, sustainable local socio-economic development.
The project is also intended to secure socio-economic benefits to the communities in which it is situated and promote and establish black entrepreneurs and industrialists to support transformation and uplift the local economy. It also seeks to develop high value and labour-intensive export crops and downstream products.
The project is also aimed at attracting substantial investment from a wide range of commercial and development financing institutions. The idea is to optimise the value derived through critical resources, most notably land and water. It will encourage the active participation of all stakeholders that have a legitimate interest in establishing and operating the envisaged agri-processing industrial cluster.
The work of the programme manager who will run the project is set to start in March 2019. The other timelines for the project are not yet available, however.
