Page 9 - 100 years of Anglo American

In winter, I would freeze because I had no
warm clothing. Food was scarce and I can say
that life was really hard,” he says.
Now he can provide for his child and has
even bought a car. He has also relocated to
Rooibokpan and says life is good.
“Mining has helped us put food on the table.
Life is much better than it was for us before we
started working on the mine,” says Phološo.
While the older generation is still nostalgic
about life in Motlhotlo, where many
supplemented their livelihoods through
subsistence farming, Phološo’s generation is
more than happy with the current address.
“Life is better here. In Motlhotlo, I had to go
up the hills pushing a wheelbarrow just to get
water. If I didn’t do that, I would have no water
to wash or to drink,” says Phološo.
Raesibe, who earned a stipend from Anglo
American Platinum while serving on the
relocation committee that facilitated talks for
the relocation from Motlhotlo village to
Rooibokpan, also feels like life has become
much easier in the new settlement.
“We love it here. It’s almost like being in a
town. We have floodlights and a tarred road,
and the water is right here in our yards. Where
we come from, there were no roads to talk
about. Cars could not move on those roads
when it rained,” she says.
Part of Mello still misses the old way of life
in the village. But he shares his wife’s views
that there have been many positive
developments since their relocation.
In Motlhotlo, they say, the schools that were
built by the community decades ago are now in
ruins. The only clinic there was dilapidated and,
even though they had electricity in their
homes, getting the basics such as water was a
struggle.
In Rooibokpan, they say, the company has
built modern, better equipped schools and
paved roads, and there is a well-resourced clinic.
Even churches that were flattened during the
relocation have been rebuilt.
The Mello home is located on a large
property that stands next to two massive and
shiny water tanks that supply water to the
area.
Mello’s relationship with Anglo American
Platinum continues on another front – he is
one of several contractors who have been given
the business of supplying water to residents of
Top: Ephraim Mello poses with his son Phološo started working at Mogalakwena in rural villages around the Mogalakwena mine.
David (far left) and nephew Phološo 2007 after he was spotted the previous year But he doesn’t want things to end here – he
Makgetha, who represent the next during Anglo American Platinum’s talent has submitted further proposals to the
generation of the family that is working identification initiative, which targeted school company through his company to provide other
for Anglo American Platinum. Below left, children with an interest in the world of services that will help grow his business and
Mello stands in front of the house that science and technology. help develop the community.
was built for him by Anglo American The company put him in a learnership “The company has really helped me. I’m
Platinum in Rooibokpan near Mokopane, programme, where he studied electrical always filled with fear when I think of what
where Mello and his family of seven used engineering and, later, water treatment and would have become of my family if I didn’t get
to live in a tiny shack. Below right, Mello plant production management. He was a job there,” says Mello.
displays the certificates he earned during eventually employed as a truck operator. “When I looked at the families of the
his 23 years of service at the Life before he was employed by Anglo people who were not working, I knew
Mogalakwena Platinum Mine, the world’s American Platinum was a never-ending that my life was better. It was hard to see other
largest producer of the valuable metal struggle. people suffering. Now I’m happy that some of
“We struggled financially at home,” says my family members have also been lucky
Phološo, who also lived in Motlhotlo. enough to have been employed there,” says
“When I went to high school, I had no shoes. Mello.
ANGLO AMERICAN 100 YEARS 9