Sugar company repairs flood-damaged facility

RESIDENTS of Mngampondo outside Empangeni will now have safe and secure places for mass gatherings after the recent official handover of their newly-renovated community hall.

For many years, the hall served as the focal point for community activities, but two years ago it fell into disuse after being severely damaged during heavy rains.

This left the community with no meeting place for social and other events.

Seeing the need for intervention as part of their community development initiative, Tongaat Hulett, in partnership with the Mngampondo Co-operative, took on the project of refurbishing the community hall, including the installation of new windows and the roof, at a cost of R300 000.

Snethemba Kunene, socio-economic development manager at Tongaat

Hulett, said Mngampondo is one of the many co-operatives supported under the communal leasehold model within Tongaat Hulett.

“The key focus areas of this model are to revitalise areas that were previously farmed but have fallen out of sugar cane production, and to bring virgin areas under cane cultivation.

“In the recent gross annual rental distribution, the 128-member co-operate received R2.9-million as proceeds from the community-based operation.

“Tongaat Hulett is committed to the future of the South African sugar industry through the comprehensive training and development of small-scale cane growers, with the goals of creating independent, viable and sustainable SMMEs and increasing cane supplies to our mills.

“Tongaat Hulett is mindful of the struggle of poverty, unemployment and social collapse that rural communities face. To address these challenges, communities need to work collectively in co-operatives to find long-lasting solutions to their social and economic challenges,” said Kunene.

Kunene added the renovation of the Mngampondo community hall is an example of effective collaboration between a co-operative and the private sector, which is essential to achieving real transformation within communities.

Mngampondo co-operative chairperson Mduduzeni Shobede said the company’s sugar cane development initiative was one of the few projects that had been established on communal land.

“This 200-hectare project has played a key role in improving the social and economic well-being of community members. Sugar cane production operations are by their very nature labourintensive processes and as such, can absorb considerable numbers of people, particularly during the weeding and harvesting stages of the operation,” said Shobede.

Inkosi Mandlenkosi Biyela of the Biyela clan said the Mngampondo community was grateful for the renovation of the hall.

“Tongaat Hulett has been consistent in addressing issues of education and training, job creation, food security, and now the renovation of a central community resource. This is symbolic of the company’s commitment to rural development,” said Biyela.