Opportunity for Social Impact
1
Assisting and Improving Local Government
Through extensive consultation with provincial and national government departments, more than one model was presented for public participation in the affairs of the municipality as envisaged in local government legislation. This was eventually refined into a “Stakeholder’s Compact” which was in principle accepted by all parties as the way forward, not only for our local community but a model which could readily be adopted elsewhere in South Africa. To date MBF had been approached by a number of civil organisations considering implementation of the Compact. MBF have also assisted in establishing chambers of commerce / business forums in other towns and cities, with their own constitutions drafted on the basis of what MBF have in place.
2
Opportunities for Employment
COVID 19 came upon us hard and unexpected and had a devastating effect on small business throughout our country, but even here MBF reacted quickly to mitigate against job losses and business closures of as much as possible. Through MBF’s “Adopt a Business” rescue plan, funding was arranged which enabled a number of small businesses to survive. MBF is proud to say that, despite the extreme difficulties experienced, we are confident that no business in our region closed down and not a single job was lost.
MBF have always been aware of the need for progressive and expansive thinking when confronted by real world problems such as unemployment. It is our mission to grow our local economy by attracting industry and investment in our region in order to provide for the many job opportunities we so urgently need to create.
Mafube is blessed with natural resources; water is abundant and our many days of sunshine each year provides for solar energy generation which we intend harnessing to, along with our existing electricity network, fulfil the needs of selected players in the agri-processing industry. MBF has partnered with a major electricity service provider and we look forward to having 2 solar farms come on line within the next few months.
MBF is currently developing capacity to train and assist local entrepreneurs, with a fully-fledged “business school” and support facility in mind. Future plans include a local technical and agricultural training college.
3
Caring for our environment
MBF is constantly active in efforts to pressurise the errant municipality and other government departments to improve operating and maintenance standards of particularly the 5 wastewater treatment plants under the control of Mafube Local Municipality. There have also been several clean-up efforts at the 4 landfill sites but these have not been sustainable because of the lack of capacity and interest of local government. MBF will through cooperation with various NGOs, facilitate the establishment of improved operating methodology which is to include recycling and composting, combined with an extensive awareness program.
4
Providing the solutions
To summarise the above, MBF is perfectly positioned and has built capacity and capability to contribute to positive change in
• governance;
• service delivery;
• employment; and
• environmental management.
MBF intend sharing our knowledge and experience with similarly-affected communities, empowering them to find their own unique solutions.