Thirty-nine mine-community SMMEs are celebrating successfully completing Impala Rustenburg’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) Programme. The SMMEs were hosted for an intensive 12-month training programme as part of Impala Rustenburg’s socio-economic development plan, which assists mine-community small, medium, and micro business owners to formalise their businesses.

A total of 400 SMMEs have benefitted from Impala Rustenburg’s ESD initiatives since they were launched in 2021. The initiatives started with a five-day workshop to which qualifying SMMEs were invited. Based on their performance in the workshop, candidates were selected to attend the 12-month training programme to further develop their business skills.

The workshops and training programme were conducted on behalf of Impala Rustenburg by Classic Oriental Consulting and Accuracy Group, two local SMMEs which operate within the mine communities. During the 12-month programme, the business owners received training in the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, compliance and governance as well as financial management and marketing.

Impala Rustenburg CE Mark Munroe said, “We are committed to working with our stakeholders and communities to ensure the growth of our mine-community SMMEs. Our ESD initiatives provide important opportunities for community-based businesses to grow into sustainable enterprises.”

An influx of applications were received for the new ESD workshops this year, highlighting the need for programmes focused on developing Rustenburg’s local entrepreneurs. “We believe that by working with our SMMEs and stakeholders, we can assist local entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and generate more jobs for the youth. We will continue to explore various ways of supporting SMMEs that will add value to their business,” concluded Munroe.