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Transnet Port Terminals completes major SMME programme in KZN

Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), in conjunction with Economic Development Tourism & Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) and the Coastal TVET College in Hammarsdale, has completed its R2 million SMME programme with nine youth-owned rural co-operatives in KwaZulu-Natal.
Transnet Port Terminals completes major SMME programme in KZN

Begun in 2013, the co-operatives were identified and, to ensure sustainability and growth, TPT and EDTEA entered into an agreement to contribute 50/50 to the supply of barbed-wire and toilet paper manufacturing equipment. The co-operatives were trained in manufacturing and business management skills at the college to equip them to manage their businesses once the machines had been delivered.

At the official ceremony on 19 August 2017, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC, Sihle Zikalala; the Mayor of Umvoti Local Municipality, Thami Ngubane; and Transnet Port Terminals’ chief executive, Nozipho Sithole visited Amakhabela, the youth-owned co-operative workshop in Greytown, which received a toilet paper manufacturing machine, as part of the programme. To date, Amakhabela is the most successful of the co-operatives involved in this project, having secured a substantial contract with Spar to supply 40 Spar branches in KwaZulu-Natal with its in-house branded toilet paper called Twin Twice.

Other co-operatives who have received machinery to manufacture either barbed-wire or toilet paper are Woman’s Vision Co-Op, Lufuno Holdings and Indluzela based in Hammarsdale. Zikhuthaze and Khazimulise manufacture in Pietermaritzburg. Amakhabela is in Greytown and Kwa Dyna’s is based in Ulundi. Imbiza operates from Eshowe and the most recent recipient of a machine is Sibambisane in Pongola.

Already there have been instances of how the previous handovers of equipment by TPT benefitted not only the lives of the youth who own these co-operatives in the programme, but also the communities where they live. One such example is where TPT, through a partnership with another co-operative from the programme, Sibambisane, helped to revamp Buhlebuzile Primary School in the Pongola area and provided the disadvantaged learners with new school shoes and uniforms.

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