Mining
Implats housing strategy:
creating communities
I
mplats has set an objective to
have 50% of their employees
living with their families in
decent accommodation by 2020.
“Our business success is founded on the
economic viability of the communities
in which we operate – access to housing and decent living conditions of our
employees and their families is vital.
“Sustainable communities are rooted
in decent accommodation. Many mines
have programmes to build decent houses for their workers., We need to further
unwind the socially destructive system
of housing migrant workers in hostels
and build permanent communities
for workers and their families,” Terence
Goodlace, CEO of Implats explains.
Through its various housing projects
Implats has enabled thousands of people to become home-owners for the first
time. The programme, which pre-dated
the Mining Charter, kicked off in 2007
and in 2013 a total of R445 million was
spent on employee housing. To date the
company has invested over R2 billion on
improving the housing and living conditions of its employees.
“Hostel conversion and home ownership is closely linked to community
development,” says Goodlace. “Our approach to socio-economic development
is based on the understanding that our
business cannot be successful in the
longer term if its surrounding communities are not economically viable, socially
uplifted and environmentally sound.”
For Implats, building sustainable communities also means improving their
access to education and health facilities, and providing improved and secure
environments where families can live
together close to their places of work.
The development of these communities should also contribute to its local
economies, and through its enterprise
development initiatives, Implats also
focuses on local procurement, the
developm