Mafube Coal has created fertile ground for genuine empowerment with the establishment of a partnership between one of Africa’s largest environmental, social and sustainability consultants and a home-grown entrepreneur.
Digby Wells Environmental – a South African company with a global footprint – was appointed by Mafube to manage the resettlement of households and graves situated on land earmarked for mining.
A condition of the appointment was that it develop an up-and-coming local business.
Marcus Masemola from STG Consultancy.
GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND
“The initial expectation was that Digby Wells Environmental would simply give a selected partner basic training,” says Mafube project manager Sheldon Solomons. “Instead, they’ve been absolutely committed to making an up-and-coming entrepreneur and his team an integral part of the entire resettlement process.”
Middelburg-based Marcus Masemola and his team at See the Glory (STG) Consultancy ticked all the right boxes as a suitable candidate for business development.
STG provides mentorship, community engagement, stakeholder management, bursary management and training services on behalf of the private and public sectors. Resettling communities is an even more specialized task and is undertaken in line with legislation and stringent international performance standards.
Learning from the Digby Wells Environmental, team has been a huge opportunity and will help us gain the credibility we need to attract and tackle future projects.” – Marcus Masemola, STG Consultancy
HANDS-ON LEARNING
“Over the past two years, Digby Wells Environmental has taken us along on every step of the journey. We’ve shadowed them, we’ve been trained by them and they’ve allowed us to manage aspects of the project independently,” says Marcus.
STG participated fully in all household resettlement activities, including the negotiation of entitlements, compensation, the physical resettlement of households, setting up livelihood restoration databases, and the overall management of grievances and snags post-resettlement.
“We’ve also provided an STG team member with a short-term secondment, given support on proposal development and costing, trained staff in defensive driving and upgraded STG’s marketing materials,” says Janet Mkhabela, Digby Wells’ social sciences manager, who commends Marcus and his team for always ‘showing up’ and delivering to the ‘highest standards’.
“Digby Wells is a well-known name and an expert in its field,” says Marcus. “It’s been an incredible experience working with them over the past two years. Learning from them has been a huge opportunity and will help us gain the credibility we need to attract and tackle future projects.”
Spending time in a rural farming community whose residents are in the process of being relocated to
a sustainable area where they will have access to electricity, running water and other amenities.
THE LONG HAUL
This flourishing partnership isn’t about to end any time soon. The two companies will work together on the implementation of a livelihood restoration plan and post-resettlement monitoring over the next three years.
“It begins with a single step”