Canyon Coal is boosting its capacity to make a meaningful difference in South African society. It recently established a social licensing department, which will strengthen the company’s drive to support enterprise development, local procurement and employment in the communities where it operates, while ensuring Canyon complies with the requirements of the new Mining Charter.

The new department is led by Xolile Mankayi. In the area of employment, Canyon Coal offers learnerships and internships to suitably qualified community members. It also employs operational staff from local communities with the help of the national Department of Labour. Xolile says Canyon takes the approach of engaging with local community groups and raising awareness in their constituencies about opportunities.

In the area of procurement, the company endeavours to contract local services such as laundry and catering, and to help small enterprises obtain capital goods and machinery to run their own mining services businesses.

Canyon aims to set the industry standard in the empowerment of local communities.

The social licensing department is currently drafting a preferential procurement policy to support this objective. The policy and an internal supplier database will be the internal mechanisms that help Canyon empower host communities.

As part of its contribution to local economic development, Canyon will work with local government to strengthen community platforms which engage with mining companies. “We need to ensure that communication between business and the community takes place on a well-structured platform,” says Xolile.

Xolile says Canyon Coal’s social licensing department is passionate about people, skills development, empowerment and transformation. It is set to support the company’s human resources and procurement departments in building a legacy wherever the company operates.