Maloma puts its best foot forward to enhance community development
Maloma Colliery has financed the reconstruction of two bridges connecting Maloma to Nsoko and Maloma to Sithobelweni.
Working with the community is extremely important and close to the mine’s heart. The bridge from Maloma to Sithobelweni benefits those from Sithobelweni and the other bridge connecting to Nsoko, benefits those from Mngomezulu and the traffic of vehicles transporting the coal.
The company considers this as its responsibility to take care of the communities it is based in and to foster their development. Furthermore, Maloma strives to see community members change their lives for the better.
The residents of these communities have expressed how much the bridges will be helpful to them. Thando Tsabedze, a resident of Nsoko, mentioned that they are witnessing how the company has been helpful to the community. The bridges will be of exceptional help, allowing them to easily travel on the road to access different services.
It is worth noting, that Maloma Colliery Limited, which is the leading mining company in Eswatini, has previously invested E100 million towards community development projects in the three host communities in which it operates.
These are the Mamba, Dlamini and Mngomezulu Chiefdoms, which have a combined estimated population of 100, 000.
The investment in these communities has gone a long way to reduce the impact of the shortage of jobs, particularly for the youth, and the effects of poverty.
Drivers
Among the major drivers of the high youth unemployment rate in these rural communities is the shortage of skills and opportunities to generate revenue.
One of the core pillars of Maloma’s community development interventions within the three host communities is physical infrastructure development.
In all the communities, infrastructure development has been designated as key towards advancing the prospects of the population.
Against that background, Maloma Mine has invested considerable resources to build and maintain physical infrastructure in the areas. Simanga Mbingo, who represented the three chiefdoms on infrastructure development once said that he believed that the Maloma Colliery produces the best coal and is trusted by the chiefs of the three chiefdoms.
For him, the mine has brought so much change in the chiefdoms in terms of infrastructure. “At first, people could not see that there is a lot that the mine does. There are a lot of unemployed graduates in the chiefdoms and the mine has come in handy to give them the much-needed jobs,” he says. Also, he says the mine management always opens its hands to the chiefdoms, especially for underprivileged young people and the elderly. “There are elderly people who have been helped by the mine by building them homes. A lot of people do not know that. Maloma has also empowered residents from the three chiefdoms including those who did not even have degrees or certificates”.
Crime
By hiring young people, the mine has helped prevent them from engaging in crime. In terms of changes, he has witnessed, he recounts that the mine has had different directors and that the current ones have done an amazing job of uniting the communities. “We have become a unified society. Since I look at the infrastructure side, I do now and again engage Maloma Mine for machinery to help in the poor roads. This has happened in different areas”.
Mbingo said he was grateful that the chiefs worked well with the mine management by calling to order those who were seemingly trying to sabotage the operations of the mine. He requests that the mine must not stop its CSI projects in the community. “I wish that the 2.5% which the mine contributes to the community can be increased. Also, there are many jobless young people and I encourage mine to empower more of them with skills. Once the young people get the required skills, they will use them instead of waiting for the company to hire them”.