Makgomo Chrome empowers youth in local communities

The entire month of June is focused on the youth in South Africa. We pay tribute to the brave group of learners who took to the streets of Soweto almost 50 years ago to protest apartheid, paving the way to equal rights for everyone. It is also about acknowledging that the young people of today still face significant hardships, the most challenging of which is an alarming youth unemployment rate.

Makgomo Chrome recognises the need to ensure that youth play an active role in our economy, and it is for this reason that the chrome processing plant and its three shareholders – Marula Community Chrome, Implats and Marula mine – have a strong focus on youth empowerment in their social development initiatives.

A fundamental part of equipping our youth for a successful future is through education and skills development, both of which underpin the various youth focused initiatives.

Learnerships

Makgomo Chrome has launched an engineering learnership programme. Eight learnerships will be awarded to cover all six host communities. The successful candidates will be trained towards becoming artisans in one of the four fields of study offered by the programme. Once the theory is completed, the eight young people will do their practical experiential training at the chrome plant. Over 400 applications have been received and the process to appoint the learnerships is underway with the support of the traditional councils.  

Digital connection enables learning

Marula Community Chrome (MCC), the majority community-owned shareholder in the Makgomo Chrome Project, recently implemented the first phase of the Agang Setshaba project, which provides access to affordable, high-quality internet connection in the six communities surrounding the chrome plant. While this initiative is part of a broader sustainable development plan for the local communities, the focus for the first phase was largely on installing hot spots in six local schools to assist learners with their studies. In an ever-advancing digital world, it is important for learners to have access to the online resources they need to guide and support their schoolwork. Phase 2 of this project will see  increased roll out to a further 19 schools in the six communities.

School readiness

MCC has also recently approved a request to fund over 1 000 pairs of school shoes and over 1 000 school bags for primary and secondary school learners in need and situated within the chrome plant’s six host communities. This school support project, which is intended to give the young learners the confidence and opportunity to realise their full potential, is being rolled out in partnership with Kesaoboka, a community directed foundation with the principal purpose of assisting and donating resources to less privileged children in deep rural areas of South Africa.

School support

Other initiatives undertaken by the three shareholders in the six host communities and funded through the proceeds received from the Makgomo Chrome Project include:

• the provision of resources, including furniture, science apparatus and experiment kits for natural and life sciences, to be used in the two-classroom science laboratory block built by the Roka Mashishi Community Development Trust at Makgamathu Secondary School
• a teacher orientation workshop on how to effectively use the science lab
• a maths and science improvement project which involved the distribution of 3 291 maths and 1 976 science dictionaries as teaching and learning resources that would assist with a better understanding of difficult maths and science concepts
• an early childhood development (ECD) support project which saw the distribution of educational toys to local ECD centres to enhance the quality of early learning
• a matric camp where Grade 12 learners were hosted in a boarding school environment, before and during the matric exams, to provide a safe and quiet space where learners were able to learn together and receive extra lessons for the final papers.

“Through these interventions, we hope to provide the youth with a solid grounding and the opportunities that will set them on a path to success,” says Johan Theron, Chairman of Makgomo Chrome.