Eight families yesterday officially became the proud owners of newly-built modern homes in Klarinet, eMalahleni when they receive their title deeds from the Executive Mayor of eMalahleni, Cllr LM Malatjie and Wescoal Group Chief Executive Reginald Demana.
The ceremony highlights an initiative by Wescoal to relocate the families living in a blasting radius at its Khanyisa Colliery where their residential structures were in a very poor condition to Klarinet, a new housing development. Once the affected community members had agreed to the relocation, Wescoal Mining arranged and paid the housing developers at Klarinet to provide eight homes at just under R500 000 each.
In addition, Wescoal financed their relocation costs for the family’s furniture and goods and provided each family with R800 a month towards rates, taxes and electricity for the first year. The initiative is part of the practical steps by the company to implement its vision as a material contributor to uplifting its employees and communities
The eight beneficiaries presently in their new homes are Lindiwe Elizabeth Seleme, Godfrey Seleme, Dudu Mbonani, Dipuo Minah Bembe, Dumisane Amos Nlogwane, Vanroy Seleme, Natalia Fabiago Zefanias and Pauline Ncazane Seleme. The relocation project is part of the sustainability pillar of ensuring regulatory and social licenses to operate in communities and share the tangible benefits of mining.
Wescoal Holdings Limited mines, processes, supplies, sells and distributes coal. It is listed on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
“Wescoal’s aim is to be a long-term leading provider of reliable energy sources. The strategic focus is currently on stability, sustainability, and scalability. Our key strategic objective is to stabilise our operations, then optimise our performance and scale-up through primarily organic opportunities. We intend to reach this objective by prudently managing costs and operational efficiencies to maximise returns from our current operations and grow the business by exploiting the resources within our portfolio of assets with a disciplined approach,” says CEO Reginald Demana.
