The Medupi Legacy Programme

The construction of the Medupi Power Station is one of Africa’s largest single construction projects ever undertaken. Eskom has made a commitment to leave a lasting legacy in Lephalale by improving people’s lives.
The Lephalale Municipality is predominately rural with 38 villages, two townships and one town. When construction began in May 2007, Eskom realised that the community felt excluded from the development.
Historically a coal mining town, Lephalale is dominated by electricity generation represented by the largest direct dry-cooling power station in the world, Matimba Power Station.
Eskom together with its partners, recognise that investment in socio-economic development initiatives in the area is a business imperative and it is against this background that the Medupi Legacy Programme, championed and sponsored by the Medupi GM Roman Crookes, was established in 2009. “Skills, enterprise and infrastructure development in the Lephalale Municipality and the Waterberg District will contribute to the growth of the Limpopo Provincial GDP once the construction is complete.”
This Corporate Social Investment (CSI) flagship has four main focus areas –skills and entrepreneurship development opportunities for the locals, socio-economic development, enterprise development and education, training and human resources development.
The coordination of these initiatives are done in conjunction with the municipality and other relevant stakeholders (such as traditional leaders) to ensure the participation of the community in the identification and implementation of these initiatives. The programme was able to raise R45-million for interventions identified with its partners, stakeholders and the community at large.
Employment and skills development is led by lead contractors Murray & Roberts and Hitachi Power Africa. The Tlhahlong Training Centre is the flagship project of the skills development aspect of the Medupi Legacy Programme. The centre was started in October 2008 by Murray & Roberts as part of its contractual obligations to Hitachi which is contracted by Eskom to build the boiler plant and is required to produce 700 artisans as part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA). The candidates are put through what is called an Accelerated Training Programme (ATP) and Pieter de Villiers, the centre’s manager is confident that Murray & Roberts will exceed the 700 target.
To contribute to the socio-economic development of the area, Eskom identified various infrastructure development projects, wildlife and game protection initiatives, schools, education and development of health provision infrastructure. For example, together with Exxaro, Eskom is spending close to R200 million repairing and upgrading the Nelson Mandela Road as well as tarring the Kuipersbult Road. This is being done to alleviate the traffic congestion in the area to leave a lasting legacy beyond the project. Eskom is building additional classrooms and donating computers for a number of schools and have donated infrastructure and equipment to clinics particularly in the villages.
The Eskom Contractor Academy, offers a holistic eight month long skills and business development course for identified Eskom contractors in the area. The Medupi Legacy Programme “is in the business of transforming black owned companies in particular” says Supplier Development and Localisation Regional Manager, Gabriel Mkhonza. The Academy boasts a 100 percent pass rate and almost all graduates from Academy have gone on and continue to be very successful in their respective business interests.
Crookes says once construction work has concluded, Eskom will not only have boosted the country’s power generation capacity by 4,800 MW using the latest power generation technology; it will also have played a significant part in strengthening the local community and boosting job prospects for a considerable section of the population.