Diversified mining company Anglo American officially handed over its building at 47 Main Street, Johannesburg, to Wits Business School (WBS) on 28 June, demonstrating the company’s wider commitment to education, entrepreneurship and leaving a positive legacy in the Johannesburg Central Business District (CBD).
This demonstrates the company’s commitment to working with partners including inner-city stakeholders, academia, small and medium-sized enterprises, civil society and residents to revitalize the CBD and its surrounding areas.
8 floors, 15,000 m2 The building will enable WBS to open Wits Crucible, a state-of-the-art centre for entrepreneurship and new business creation that will provide vital business education, incubation and acceleration services to young people and entrepreneurs in inner-city Johannesburg.
Wits Crucible bridges the gap between academic learning and real-world entrepreneurial experience, providing four core units of entrepreneurial development support to young people, student entrepreneurs and Wits alumni.
The development unit provides aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills to conceive, launch and grow successful businesses.
Crucible will also have a venture screening and selection unit that will focus on the feasibility of business ideas to drive innovation and digital technology integration.
It also has an incubation unit for selected business ventures and an acceleration unit that provides intensive growth support to top performing ventures.
“Anglo American wants to play its part in creating a safer, more sustainable and more prosperous environment for Johannesburg’s residents and businesses.”
“Through these initiatives, we hope to breathe new life into the CBD and build on the work that began many years ago to make it more attractive for businesses to locate here and for people to live here,” Anglo CE said. Duncan Oneblood During the handover ceremony.
“Today we stand at the beginning of an exciting chapter in our partnership and the Crucible, the Centre for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation, represents a ray of hope,” added Wits University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Zebulon Vilakazi.
“The Anglo American Johannesburg CBD Campus is, I believe, both a testament to our past and a beacon of hope for our future. Preserving this historic campus and others like it is not just an indulgence in nostalgia, it is a commitment to the wellbeing of future generations.”
“By understanding and respecting this heritage, I believe we can strengthen our identity. We can draw valuable insights from the past. We can chart a path towards a more sustainable, more inclusive future. In doing so, we can ensure that the lessons of the past resonate through time and serve as a guiding light for generations to come,” Wanblood commented.
Wits University and Anglo have partnered to upgrade the Johannesburg Planetarium on the university’s city campus into a world-class digital hub in 2022. The new Wits Anglo American Digital Dome will be a state-of-the-art science centre, inspiring all generations to take an active interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and digital arts.
Additionally, Anglo last year handed over a building at 45 Main Street in Johannesburg’s CBD to the Maharishi Invincible Institute (MII) to support educational outcomes for disadvantaged young people, while subsidiary diamond miner De Beers transferred ownership of the historic Harry Oppenheimer House building in Kimberley to Sol Plaatje University, enabling the institution to expand the development of its continuing professional development centre.
