IT TOOK Kgosi Nyalala Pilane 10 years to renegotiate the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela’s agreement with mining company Anglo American Platinum (Amplats). His plan was to fund the development of South Africa’s first post-apartheid city, Moruleng.The city, officially launched last month, is now the commercial hub for about 350,000 people in the region northeast of the Pilanesberg National Park. Its features include a sports stadium, R400m mall and 3km of dual carriageway called Moruleng Boulevard.Rural development is a key priority of the government’s National Development Plan.In December 2006 the Bakgatla acquired a 15% interest in Amplats’s Rustenburg Platinum Mines’ Union section mining and concentrating business, and interests in some prospecting rights in the area."We were just in time. Platinum was doing very well in 2007, but since 2008 there has been no revenue (from the Bakgatla’s shareholding in Amplats)," says Mr Pilane, who is chief of the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela.The Bakgatla and the Ro...
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