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Bakwena’s ABCD programme flourishes in Rustenburg communities

7th December 2020

By: Creamer Media Reporter

     

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This article has been supplied as a media statement and is not written by Creamer Media. It may be available only for a limited time on this website.

Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire (Pty) Ltd, (Bakwena), responsible for the N1N4 toll roads, launched its flagship Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) programme in September 2019 and a year later, the Community Champions in the Rustenburg area are reporting positive results.

These Champions, also known as Bafenyi ka Bakwena (Winners by Bakwena) were selected to encourage local community development and upliftment, as well as to assist the Concessionaire to roll out their ABCD project along the N4.

The ABCD project is an approach to sustainable community-driven development. Beyond the mobilisation of a particular community, it is concerned with how to link micro-assets to the macro-environment. Bakwena’s ABCD premise is that communities can drive the development process themselves by identifying and mobilising existing, but often unrecognised assets in their  communities, thereby responding to challenges and creating local social improvement and economic development.

Fast forward 12-months and amidst the devastation that the COVID-19 pandemic caused across South Africa, there was no better time than the present to step up to be an ABCD Champion. “There is no dignity in hunger” - it was this approach that led Bafenyi ka Bakwena’s Community Champions to take various initiatives to keep their family members and communities fed during the height of the pandemic when most of the country was facing devastating hunger exacerbated by COVID-19. 

Instead of sitting idly and waiting for assistance, the Community Champions, through Bakwena’s ABCD progrmame, used their skills of the heart, head and hands to distribute awareness notices to perform Track and Trace initiatives to combat the spread of the coronavirus and handed out face masks to the destitute around Rustenburg. The Community Champions were provided with knowledge about the virus and shared this information with their communities via social media. 

“People are at the heart of what we do and how we conduct our business. Our Community Champions are stellar examples of leaders embodying those values. Utilising land at their disposal, they developed food security initiatives. Mathlogonolo Molato and Dineo Selatolo from Ward 16 got involved in Covid screening at the local school and the mobile clinic.  Dineo Selatolo from the same ward created homemade masks and distributed them amongst community workers,” says Solomon Kganyago, Commercial Manager of Bakwena. 

Mcebisi Mankuntywane, another Bafenyi ka Bakwena from Ward 32 went about creating sanitisers at his home, which he distributed to his community to curb the spread of the virus, especially amongst households that do not have access to clean running water. Another good example is Saki Molobye and Mpho Mabidikane, from Ward 36, who planted sunflowers and maize and even trained the youth in their community how to become sustainable small scale farmers.   

“ABCD helped us during a time of uncertainty, nobody knew about the coronavirus and that we would be in lockdown for a longtime. We had to think on our feet and find a way to feed our families and assist our communities. Our champions created homemade face masks, worked with the police, Red Cross, Department of Health and community members to distribute food parcels,” said Dineo Selatolo from Ward 16. 

“The community owes a great deal to the passion of Bafenyi ka Bakwena and their dedication to selflessly serving their communities. To build on the successes of the ABCD programme, Bakwena partnered with Zutari to implement a food programme called “Eat What You Grow” (EWYG) as a means of driving food sustainability in underprivileged communities,” explains Kganyago. All the champions started with their own vegetable gardens in their backyards and facilitated the process with other community members who are now all involved in growing vegetables to keep their families and communities fed.  

The programme involved equipping 120 Community Champions in eight different areas along the N1 and N4 routes between Hammanskraal and Dinokana with ABCD training and the skills to start and grow community vegetable gardens.  Bakwena offered Community-Based Health Care and First Aid training to an additional group of 30 champions.  

“We are glad to see that the training offered to our Community Champions is paying dividends in the community of Rustenburg. In the year since we started with our ABCD programme, we have seen a lot of progressive changes in the area, but perhaps none so vividly portrayed than the recent actions by the Bafenyi ka Bakwena to roll up their sleeves and use their land and resources to grow fresh produce to feed their communities. These actions are inspiring and Bakwena together with our social partners, Zutari, will continue to work alongside the community to implement sustainable change, even beyond COVID-19,” concludes Kganyago. 

 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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