Jacque de Wet of Hub Enterprise Imifino Gardens promotes skills development and job creationAs a global business, Anglo American thinks big. But when it comes to local businesses, we can also think small, enabling us to use neighbouring enterprises as suppliers whenever possible, and also providing them with mentoring and support. The objectives: sustainable growth and prosperity on regional and national levels. This is nothing new and is consistent with one of our founding principles: to make profits for our shareholders, but to do so in such a way as to make a real and lasting contribution to the communities in which we operate.
Consequently, our mining operations' contributions to local and national supply chains constitute what is probably the greatest single benefit of our presence in host communities. This represents the best opportunity for host communities to share in the benefits of mining.
Zimele - South Africa
Anglo American established a small and medium enterprise (SMEs) development and empowerment initiative, Zimele, more than 20 years ago. The objective was to empower black entrepreneurs through the creation and transformation of sustainable, profitable businesses.
Zimele consists of five separate funds – the Supply Chain Fund, the Anglo American Khula Mining Fund, the Community Fund, the Olwazini Fund and the Zimele Green Fund. The funds operate on a commercial basis, albeit with the social purpose of creating sustainable and economically viable enterprises by providing equity/loans, mentoring and access to value-enhancing opportunities.
In 2011, these funds concluded 519 transactions and provided $16.3 million in funding for businesses that employed 4,367 people and were responsible for a combined turnover of $75.3 million.
Emerge - Chile
Launched in 2007, our Emerge programme in Chile has surpassed its ambitious goal of supporting more than 7,000 entrepreneurs and SMEs in Chile. Through partnership with Fondo Esperanza, the programme has helped more than 100 medium-sized businesses and over 25,000 small businesses through business skills training and community bank micro-loans. Since inception, 26,251 jobs have been supported through the programme. The community bank model – in which members run their own businesses and act as co-guarantors by committing to pay back all the loans – has delivered exceptionally high loan repayment rates. In 2011, Emerge was expanded through a new partnership with international enterprise development NGO Technoserve. This initiative aims to expand support to medium-sized businesses, with an additional emphasis on potential suppliers.
CARE - Brazil
Anglo American's Barro Alto project in Brazil has completed the final year of a three-year community development plan with NGO, CARE Brazil. Enterprise development forms a strong focus of the partnership, which also included activities to improve public education and social development in the communities surrounding our operation. Local residents have been encouraged to take part in a free entrepreneurial management course aimed at developing business ideas and opportunities in the region. The final group of small business owners has now completed the course.