Construction work can now resume at Gibela Rail Transport Consortium’s (Gibela’s) R1-billion train manufacturing facility at Dunnottar, after weeks of community protests in Duduza, Ekurhuleni, came to an end.

Gibela earlier this month halted construction work at the plant out of concern for the safety of construction workers on site, after protestors barricaded roads in the area with burning tyres, rubble and rocks, claiming that Gibela was not employing local residents.

The local post office had also been set alight amid the protests.

Gibela previously warned that the disruption to the time-sensitive construction work at the manufacturing facility was threatening the completion of buildings key to the start of manufacturing of trains and the training of recruits.

The company will supply 600 new commuter trains to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) for use by its Metrorail business over the next ten years, with the manufacturing facility set to employ 1 500 people once fully operational.

“Calm in the community and the resumption of construction work has flowed directly from a series of engagements with key stakeholders held last week, revolving around a thorough debrief on our operations, plans and progress in so far as they relate to job creation, skills development, the involvement of small and medium enterprises and sourcing opportunities for local suppliers/businesses,” the company said in a statement.

These engagements were led by Ekurhuleni Finance and Economic Development MMC Doctor Xhakaza and his team.

Out of these engagements, the following action points were agreed upon, including the immediate resumption of the stakeholder forum under the stewardship of Xhakaza – to keep all stakeholders abreast of developments and to ensure an equitable distribution of economic development opportunities to local communities.

Further, a three-day workshop on economic development with relevant parties from the Ekurhuleni metro will be held, with Gibela augmenting its sourcing strategy with a component thereof focused specifically on local communities.

Gibela would also streamline its current recruitment practices, it said.

The series of engagements was rounded off on February 26, with a meeting with some 600 Duduza residents, at which a commitment was secured to immediately stop all protest action and to allow the resumption of work and school from yesterday.

Gibela CEO Marc Granger noted that, with the resumption of work at the Dunnottar construction site, a primary focus in the short term will be to catch up on lost time.

“We will continue engagement with the community, the council and the MMC to improve understanding of our project and to ensure that it brings the intended benefits to the immediate communities,” he said.