Today the leadership collective of the Rustenburg Local Municipality led by the Executive Mayor Councillor Mpho Khunou, Speaker of Council – Councillor Sheila Mabale-Huma, Municipal Manager Mr. Victor Makona, Members of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Public Safety, Corporate Support Services and Intergovernmental Relations and Special Projects – Councillor Victoria Makhaula, Councillor Joyce Mashishi-Ntsime and Councillor Nosipho Babe met with the leadership of Sibanye Stillwater to take a tour of infrastructure no longer in use by the mining giant.
The tour of the facilities as led by the mining company’s representatives – Fritz Jooste, Group Manager HRTS & Property, Henry Ricks, Vice President Engineering and Morgan Motswana, Acting HOD Community Engagement & Development comes in the wake of the mining giant’s move to dispose its assets which are not in active use. The assets including mining houses and hostels which were housed mine employees. In addition, some of the infrastructure include offices, used for administration, halls and portions of undeveloped land.
The Executive Mayor said, the discussions around the possible donation of all the properties to the Municipality, emanates from the back existing good working relationship “our association with Sibanye, has benefitted many of our communities in the past. Given the housing demands in the City, the acquisition of the land will accelerate our program for housing which will deal with people residing informal dwellings. It is a known fact that we are the most populous City in the province, with the highest number of informal settlements as well as rural-to-urban migration. Therefore, any access to additional land, lessens the burden as we roll out developments in the City, particularly those targeted at infrastructure development” Mayor Khunou said.
Sibanye Stillwater’s move is part of its plans to ensure that its assets are repurposed for the benefit of the company as well as the host communities. The tour included visiting facilities in near Zakhele informal settlement, an inspection at the mine’s operations near Nkaneng as well a portion of land in Marikana, which the mining company intends on disposing with the intention building houses.
Present also was the Director for Local Economic Development and officials from the Planning and Human Settlements Directorate whose role was to get a sense of the state of the assets. This was to get insight into how the envisaged receipt to the RLM can fit into the City’s long term plans which includes accelerated economic intensive activities. These activities can create new opportunities for job creation, while implementing key programmes for skills transfer using the location of the assets to serve the door-step communities.
In recent years the Municipality has worked hard to address the housing question, to the extent that one of its successful housing projects has seen Bokamoso residents, receiving proper housing with supplementary Municipal amenities, as the City continues to ensure that informal settlements are reduced in order to deliver key services within a spatial and organized approach.
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