Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) handed over a barbed wire manufacturing machine to a youth-owned co-operative, Sibambisane CC, at an official ceremony in Pongola, northern KwaZulu Natal on Friday.
This is part of a small, medium and macros enterprise development programme – run by TPT in conjunction with the KZN department of Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) and the Coastal TVET College in Hammarsdale – which, to date, has given a boost of more than R2 million to women and youth-owned rural co-operatives in the province through the supply of barbed-wire security machines and tissue manufacturing machines.
The programme was launched in 2013 with 10 co-operatives identified. TPT, in partnership with EDTEA, entered into an agreement to procure manufacturing equipment for the cooperatives by each contributing 50/50 towards procuring the equipment.
“The 10 cooperatives were not only trained in the manufacturing sector but in business management skills as well to equip them to manage their businesses once the machines had been delivered,” said Thandi Sabelo, TPT executive manager for procurement.
In the first phase of the programme, the co-operatives were trained at the Coastal TVET College in Hammarsdale last year. “The second phase of the programme is the hand-over of the machines purchased,” said Sabelo.
