Local youths have praised platinum giant Zimplats for supporting them through Local Enterprise Development (LED) saying their business are growing due to the assistance.
Speaking during the ongoing agricultural show, Israel Potera, General Manager of Glenrise Investments, a service enabler which specialises in mining and mining support, engineering, civil and general works, construction and houseboat hospitality said they are grateful for the support they get from Zimplats.
“Glenrise is a youth company which started in 2016 born out of the local enterprise development programme that is run by Zimplats, so we are very grateful to Zimplats for ensuring that a company like ours would come into existence. Glenrise is a company whose sole mandate is to raise funding for Ngezi Platinum Football Club, a company born out of Mhondoro Ngezi by the community, Zimplats obviously playing a key part in that exercise.
“It is a club that has done well in the premier league in Zimbabwe and Glenrise is the main sponsors of Ngezi Platinum stars. Glenrise operations started in Ngezi providing various services to Zimplats mining division and the processing division. Our major lines of services are mining and mining support. These are services that we offer in various mines that Zimplats has. In Ngezi we also offer construction services both underground and on the surface.
“We also offer various engineering services and maintenance services, particularly for shutdowns that happen from time to time both in the mine and the processing divisions of Zimplats. We have also added our portfolio of services with lines like facilities management, hospitality where we have got facilities that we manage on behalf of Zimplats and Murota Golf Course in Ngezi.
“We also have got our own houseboat in Kariba which becomes an arm that we have in hospitality. We also manage another houseboat for clients again in Kariba. We are a company that has a diverse offering of services with a foundation in mining, mining support, engineering, and construction which are the major arms of the business that we conduct,” he said.
Static Strata Managing Director Tawanda Gwasira said Zimplats is playing a pivotal role in supporting the youths within their organisation.
“We are part of the Zimplats local enterprise development programme. We provide support to all the Zimplats underground mines. It’s basically underground physical structural support that we provide to all the mines in Zimplats underground.
“We have a lot of experience in civil engineering and obviously a lot of concrete work. We are a youth-led project.
“All our employees are new, so it is a youth support programme through the support of Zimplats enterprises. What we are here for is to show as evidence to everyone that Zimplats has a local enterprises development programme that they are supporting mainly focusing on the youths,” he said.
Communities, cities and governments around the world are increasingly turning to Local Enterprise Development (LED) strategies in response to the challenges of globalization and the drive for decentralization.
LED means more than just economic growth. It is promoting participation and local dialogue, connecting people and their resources for better employment and a higher quality of life for both men and women
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