SIOC Community Development Trust (SIOC-cdt)

The SIOC Community Development Trust (SIOC-CDT) was established in 2006 by Kumba Iron Ore's Sishen Iron Ore Company to invest in the development of the communities near its Northern Cape mining operations. Based in Kathu, the Trust funds education, infrastructure, and enterprise-development projects across its host communities, which span the Gamagara, Ga-Segonyana, Joe Morolong, and Tsantsabane municipal areas in the Northern Cape, as well as Thabazimbi in Limpopo. Since its founding, the Trust has invested more than R1 billion in socio-economic and community-development projects, under the stated principle of 'defining ourselves through actions, not our words.'

SIOC-CDT exists because South African mining companies are required, under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and the Mining Charter, to invest in the development of communities affected by their mining rights as a condition of holding those rights; the Trust is the vehicle through which a share of Sishen mine's dividends is directed toward that legal and social obligation, rather than being a purely discretionary corporate social-investment programme. Its bursary component has funded more than 550 underprivileged students from its beneficiary communities to study at tertiary institutions across the country.

Because the Trust's purpose is broad community upliftment rather than workforce supply for Kumba or SIOC specifically, publicly available information does not describe any work-back or employment obligation attached to its bursaries -- recipients are not required to work for Kumba, SIOC, or the Trust after graduating.