Anglo American has partnered with ten municipalities in mining towns in which it operates to identify areas of collaboration when it comes to planning function and improvement of service delivery.
The ten municipalities; Gamagara and Tsantsabane in the Northern Cape; Blouberg, Musina, Fetakgomo-Tubatse, and Mogalakwena in Limpopo; Moses Kotane in North West; and Emalahleni and Steve Tshwete in Mpumalanga took part in the Municipal Capability & Partnership Programme (MCPP) peer-learning programme held in Polokwane last week.
The MCPP programme forms part of a broader Collaborative Regional Development (CRD) approach in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the Northern Cape, where it partners with business, government, and NGOs to share good practices, challenges, and lessons learned on local government programmes such as integrated development planning, spatial development planning, and local economic development.
Our mining operations already play a vital role in many of our host communities, including the development and maintenance of essential infrastructure and services such as roads, health facilities, medication, clean water, and energy.
“The MCPP complements this work by collaborating with and supporting municipalities with the development of systems and processes, provision of technical support, and recognising the importance of strengthening the functionality of municipal teams responsible for strategic water management, infrastructure project management, and strategic development planning,” said Programme Manager, Musa Jack.
Through co-creation and collaboration, the programme has already seen improved relationships and trust between Anglo American and our partner municipalities.
“By contributing to municipal management systems, promoting the functionality of municipal teams, and encouraging municipalities and industry partners to collaborate, the programme also helps to address other interrelated challenges, like the financial viability of municipalities, increasing demands for services due to in-migration and settlement growth, the impact of climate change, food security, and the creation of sustainable livelihoods and jobs,” said Jack.
The MCPP is being rolled out through collaboration not only with the participating municipalities but also other key partners including, national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), provincial governments the CSIR as implementing partner and Thungela which also funds support to Emalahleni and Steve Tshwete local municipalities. Other collaborators include the National Business Institute (NBI), the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) other research institutes and agencies such as SALGA and SACN.
“Working with a diverse set of partners ensures we are best able to collaborate with municipalities to improve the quality and sustainability of infrastructure investment and services, and also to tackle complex challenges unique to mining towns, while working towards less dependence on mining operations in the long term,” said Jack.
