Business support helps Limpopo SME thrive

To build resilience as an entrepreneur, you must have good support – not just financially, but through training and mentorship as well. That’s the view of Sharon Mashishi, Director of Bahlaping Mash Trading, a 100% black-, youth- and female-owned engineering firm in Mogalakwena, Limpopo.

Mashishi started her business when she saw opportunities to provide services to companies in her mining town.

Looking to firmly establish and grow her business, she joined

Anglo American Zimele’s enterprise development programme, where she was mentored on using a Business Model

Canvas, affording her the opportunity to reengineer her business in response to

Covid-19 and develop an alternative model to drive the growth of her business.

After being onboarded as a supplier to Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine, Bahlaping secured a three-year joint venture contract for pit reticulation services at the operation. Since securing this contract, the company has grown rapidly to 63 employees from the local community, and now provides additional products and services such as trusses, reflective poles and transport services.

Mentorship has made all the difference

“The training, guidance and support provided to me has made all the difference to my business. It has given me the opportunity to find a suitable joint venture partner through market linkages, where suppliers get introduced to each other for possible partnerships,” says Mashishi.

“This partnership has been extremely helpful in achieving my goal of making a long-term difference in my community through providing employment. My JV partner provides critical technical support and capacity-building that allows us to execute on our contract with the mine.” "Anglo American Platinum has significantly increased its procurement from local and ‘doorstep’ community suppliers. Since 2016, we have managed to increase our procurement from host and doorstep communities around our operations by over 500%, totalling R3.8 billion in 2020. More than 13% of this spend is with women-owned businesses. In the first half of 2021, we had already spent R2.2 billion in host and doorstep communities," says Collin Pillay, Supply Chain Manager at Mogalakwena Complex.

“We always consider the impact of our operations on immediate communities. Offering greater business and development opportunities to host community suppliers supports our vision of building diverse local economies where we operate, allowing communities to thrive well into the future." ■