Demonstrating its broad commitment to education, entrepreneurship and leaving a positive legacy in the Johannesburg central business district (CBD), diversified miner Anglo American on June 28 celebrated the official handover of its building at 47 Main street, in Johannesburg, to Wits Business School (WBS).

This showcases the company’s commitment to working with partners, including inner-city stakeholders, academia, small, medium-sized and microenterprises, civic organisations and residents, to rejuvenate the CBD and surrounds.

The eight-floor,15 000 m² building, will allow WBS to launch the ‘Wits Crucible’ a state-of-the-art Centre for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation, providing crucial business education, incubation and acceleration services for youth and entrepreneurs in the Johannesburg inner-city.

Bridging the gap between academic learning and real-world entrepreneurial experience, the Wits Crucible will provide four key units of entrepreneurship development support for the youth, student entrepreneurs and Wits graduates.

A development unit will provide aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills to ideate, launch and grow a successful business.

The 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 will also boast an incubation unit for selected business ventures and an acceleration unit to offer intensive growth support to top performing ventures. 

“Anglo American hopes to play a small part in creating a safer, a more sustainable and a prosperous environment for residents of Johannesburg, as well as businesses.

“It is through these efforts that I hope that we will be able to breathe new life into the CBD and build on the work that has started so many years ago to make it more attractive for businesses to exist here, and for people to live here,” said Anglo CE Duncan Wanblad during the handover ceremony.

“Today, we stand on a threshold of an exciting chapter in our partnership. This Crucible, the Centre for Entrepreneurship and the New Venture Creation, represents a beacon of hope,” added Wits vice-chancellor Professor Zeblon Vilakazi.

“The Anglo American Johannesburg CBD campus, I think, is a testament to our past but, more importantly, it is a beacon of hope for our future. Preserving this historic campus, and others like it, is not merely an exercise in nostalgia . . . it is a commitment to the future wellbeing of generations to come.

“By understanding and honouring this heritage, I think we can strengthen our sense of identity. We can draw valuable insights from our past. We can chart a path forward for a much more sustainable and a much more inclusive future. And in doing so, we can ensure the lessons of the past absolutely resonate through time and serve as a guiding light for these generations to come,” Wanblad commented.

In 2022, Wits University and Anglo also partnered to upgrade the Johannesburg Planetarium, situated on the university’s city campus, into a world-class digital hub. The new Wits Anglo American Digital Dome will be a state of-the-art science centre that will inspire all generations to take an active interest in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, as well as the digital arts. 

Further, Anglo last year also handed its 45 Main street building in the Johannesburg CBD over to the Maharishi Invincibility Institute (MII), supporting education outcomes for underprivileged youth, while subsidiary company and diamond miner De Beers transferred ownership of the historic Harry Oppenheimer House building, in Kimberley, to the Sol Plaatje University, allowing the university to expand the development of its Centre for Continuous Professional Development.