Strategic Partners Group (SPG) Raises Its Gautrain Ownership Stake
In two separate transactions, and at a cost of R39-million, the Strategic Partners Group (SPG), the major empowerment partner in the Gautrain, has increased its shareholding by slightly less than 12 percent in the Bombela Operating Company (BOC). Having recently acquired an additional 11.48-percent of BOC, SPG now owns 36.58-percent of the company.
BOC is the company commissioned by the Bombela Concession Company (BCC) to provide a safe, comfortable, clean and integrated Gautrain transport system. SPG is also a 37.87-percent owner of BCC, the organisation appointed by the Gauteng Provincial Government in 2006 to design, partially finance, build, operate and maintain Gautrain. The company’s operational concession for Gautrain ends in 2026.
SPG Executive Chairman Mzolisi Diliza today disclosed that in a first BOC share ownership deal, his company had acquired 7.89-percent of BOC shares previously owned by construction company Murray and Roberts (M&R). The opportunity to buy these shares had arisen, Diliza said, when M&R like SPG an original BOC shareholder, had decided to dispose of its BOC shares. M&R had been a 23.9-percent BOC shareholder and the remainder of its holding - following SPG’s acquisition - had been bought by Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), a specialised French rail transportation company.
Diliza revealed that SPG’s second BOC share purchase came about when RATP agreed to make available to the company an additional 3.59-percent stake in the company.
“We had no hesitation in making use of our option to buy the additional shares offered to us by RATP and once consummated, the acquisition brought our company’s additional BOC shareholding to just under 12-percent,” said Diliza. He added that SPG, a wholly owned black South African company, was committed to increasing its Gautrain presence whenever opportunities presented themselves.
“In addition to being a world class rapid rail link system, Gautrain is a South African legacy project and in this context it is critically important that a domestic company be meaningfully involved in the ongoing management of the project. With future expansion plans, the Gautrain operation offers considerable potential for employment and economic development in Gauteng. From a strategic perspective, SPG is vigorously focused on expanding its business foothold in the Gautrain domain.”
Diliza described SPG’s acquisition of the additional BOC shares, which the company funded without seeking assistance from financial institutions, as a positive development for the black business community in South Africa.
“It is a commercial accomplishment that truly enhances broad-based black economic empowerment in our country and one that in the longer term will enhance returns for SPG shareholders”.
Enquiries: M G Diliza (011) 944 6700 11 July 2018
Mining and community development – speech notes for Mr Mzolisi (Zoli) Diliza, Executive
Chairman, Strategic Partners Group at the Mining Indaba Primer at Fasken Martineau,
Sandton on 31 january 2014.
Seminar Topic: "Mining Companies and Surrounding Communities - Barrier of Benefit?"
As a former Chief Executive of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa as well as being
a Chief in the rural community from which I originate, I believe that I am eminently
well qualified to assert that the days of mining companies operating in South Africa
with no visible commitment to community development are gone forever.
In fact, all mining companies engaged in turning to account South Africa’s mineral
resources are currently obliged by law to meet community development objectives.
Acceptance of that reality makes it fundamentally important that community development
initiatives undertaken by mining companies must have a positive impact.
In providing input for the discussion that is about to take place, it is my intention
to focus briefly on several critical issues that demand attention for the success
of corporate community development interventions.
In the first instance there needs to be categorical commitment to the concept of
sustainability. In the context of mining, the most suitable definition of sustainable
development is: "Using the engine of mining to build an economy that survives and
is better off when mining activity ends." What this dictates is that community needs
must be met not only in the present but also in the future. Community development
has to be founded on the principle of sustainability.
A second vital criterion rests on the so-called "social licence to operate." Implicit
in this axiom is the ongoing acceptance of a company’s activities by communities.
It is premised on the idea that companies must gain and maintain the support of
people who live in areas affected by mining operations.
Acquiring the social licence to operate not only makes good business sense, it also
minimises the risk of doing business and ensures access to land and resources. Additionally,
it presents genuine opportunity to transform mining in a way that promotes the economic
and social upliftment of communities.
Moving on, I must emphasize the engagement process that needs always to progress
between companies and affected communities. This is a requirement entrenched in
South Africa’s Mining Charter and it finds supplementary endorsement in the Stakeholder
Declaration for the Sustainable Growth and Meaningful Transformation of South Africa’s
Mining Industry.
Both the Charter and the Declaration record a prerequisite to adhere to community
consultation processes. While there is no evidence to suggest that mining companies
have failed to comply with community consultation benchmarks, a recently completed
Mining Charter Impact Assessment Report concluded that projects implemented by mining
companies had, in some instances, fallen short of addressing the needs of specific
communities.
This raises the question of whether community consultation is, in fact, an adequate
and effective tool to address the needs of affected communities. The short answer,
unfortunately, is NO! It is not because mining companies have been consulting incorrectly.
Rather, the problem lies in the fact that consultation processes are inherently
flawed and are ineffective mechanisms for accurately determining community needs
and thus ensuring collaborative project implementation.
In seeking solutions, it is believed that the answer may lie in the practice of
community mobilization.
Community mobilization is defined as a process of working collaboratively with groups
within a community to identify issues that affect the community. It involves extensive
and sustained engagement with the community that goes way beyond consultation but
does not preclude it. The objectives of community mobilization are to encourage,
support and strengthen communities so that they are able to analyse their own situations
and take steps to address common concerns and make changes for the better.
Global best practice has shown that mobilization is a more comprehensive and inclusive
process than consultation and that it has the potential to produce better outcomes.
Success is dependent on communities realizing that self help is the preferable option.
Rather than expecting handouts and believing mining companies to be automatic money
dispensers, communities must accept them as partners with the capacity to assist
communities in helping themselves.
On the other hand, and from a company perspective, the mobilization option requires
a re-organization of internal capacities and skills to meet the challenges that
will arise. In addition to having a comprehensive understanding of community imperatives,
responsible company representatives will have to be possessed with, among others,
facilitation skills, conflict management skills and social dialogue skills.
Balance, ladies and gentlemen, is the next notion that I would like to raise in
this brief presentation on community development. It represents one of the major
challenges confronting mining companies that are compelled to demonstrate a capacity
to uncover acceptable equilibrium in dealing with the claims and interests of different
stakeholders and roleplayers in communities that live in the shadows of mining company
headgears.
Power dynamics that exist, most particularly in rural areas, between traditional
institutions and constitutional governance structures are often the cause of conflict,
bottlenecks and delays in community development project implementation. To overcome
these obstacles, mining companies can never escape the decision-making processes
that embrace all community interest groups and factions. They also constantly need
to be cognizant of the essential requirement of establishing engagement structures
that are both democratic and fully inclusive.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I re-emphasize the essential recognition of
"sustainable development" and the "social licence to operate" as pre-eminent components
of all mining company programmes aimed at securing successful community development
interventions.
I thank you for your kind attention.
Continental – SPG Joint Venture Host the launch of the Second phase of the Gautrain
Continental SPG JV hosted the second phase of the Gautrain launch in June 2011 to the media buying and planning industry following the more than successful Airport to Sandton line that was introduced just before the Fifa 2010 world Cup.
The second phase of the media offer of illuminated advertising lightboxes and non-illuminated advertising frames covered the following stations: Rosebank, Marlboro, Midrand, Centurion, Pretoria and Hatfield.
Each of the above stations has a minimum of 10 light-boxes that are “in the faces” of the traveling commuters making Gautrain advertising one of the most valuable captive audience as more dwell time is spent on the platforms.
STRATEGIC PARTNERS GROUP (SPG) MEDIA RELEASE ON Gautrain ICT Initiative.
The Strategic Partners Group (SPG) – as empowerment partner of the Bombela Concession Company which has built and now operates the Gautrain – has completed its work on the creation of a technological environment that will enable Gautrain commuters to make use of their mobile phones and other mobile devices to make phone calls and connect to the Internet underground at the Sandton, Park and Rosebank stations.
Making these facilities available represents the first phase of a much broader engineering project which will see the installation of additional technical infrastructure that will extend across the entire Gautrain reserve.
SPG’s Executive Chairman Mzolisi Diliza says that conclusion of phase one of the project, which was undertaken in partnership with the Gautrain Management Agency, the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, the Bombela Concession Company, Vodacom and MTN, is an important addition to the services and benefits that the world-class Gautrain extends to the thousands of South Africans and tourists who use it every day as a transport amenity of choice.
“Completion of this initial part of the assignment, which needed to be executed in a highly complex technical and operational environment, is a notable milestone for SPG. We continue to engage with our partners to expedite the strategic and operational imperatives that are needed to bring finalisation to an exercise that ultimately will give all Gautrain commuters, wherever they find themselves on the system, seamless connectivity to the outside world”.
For further information please contact M.G. Diliza at (011) 944 6700.
1 July 2015.