ISD AcademyInstitute for Social Dialogue
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What this course is about

Local businesses want to supply mines, and mines say they want local suppliers, yet the relationship often ends in frustration or conflict. This course explains how mine procurement actually works, what the law and the Social and Labour Plan (SLP) do and do not require, how a small business becomes supplier-ready, and how to organise legitimately without sliding into extortion.

Who it is for

Local entrepreneurs, cooperatives, business forum members, youth and women in business, municipal local economic development officials, and mine procurement and supplier development staff.

What you will be able to do

  1. Describe how a mine buys goods and services and where a small business can fit in.
  2. Explain what an SLP's procurement commitments say, and what the law does not require.
  3. Prepare a basic supplier-readiness checklist for their own business.
  4. Distinguish legitimate business organising from extortion, and choose lawful routes to raise concerns.

Preview: the first two minutes

Module 1 · Introduction · 2 min

A woman in a headwrap and white apron packs trays of food in a small, busy home kitchen at dawn.

Animated scene (fictional). Thandeka runs a catering business in Kopano. She has delivered a proposal to the Kopano Manganese mine gate three times and heard nothing. Her neighbour says "you need to know someone". Is that true?

Modules

  1. Module 1 · 18 min

    How mine procurement works

    Describe how a mine buys goods and services and where a small business can fit in.

  2. Module 2 · 18 min

    Local procurement commitments and the IDP

    Explain what an SLP's procurement commitments say, and what the law does not require.

  3. Module 3 · 18 min

    Getting supplier-ready

    Prepare a basic supplier-readiness checklist for their own business.

  4. Module 4 · 18 min

    Business forums, ethics and extortion

    Distinguish legitimate business organising from extortion, and choose lawful routes to raise concerns.

Go deeper

Optional, outside the 72 minutes.

Sources

Doing Business with the Mine | ISD Academy