Who would have thought that a deliberate attempt to fight climate change through tree planting would offer one of South Africa’s leading gaming and hospitality companies the ideal opportunity to also help revive the local citrus industry? And they are doing it while uplifting unemployed youth at the same time.
By choosing to take responsibility for their carbon footprint, Sun City Resort situated in North West, is setting a good example of how major corporate companies can play a positive role in saving lives and improving air quality for all, and also contribute to agriculture and community development.
Sun City Resort is currently on an impressive tree planting mission to fight climate change. Already they have planted 100 citrus trees at schools across the province and plans to plant a further 550 orange and lemon trees on their property this year.
According to Lwazi Mswelanto, the sustainability manager for Sun City, the tree planting initiative is part of Sun International’s sustainability approach.
“Our efforts are to be part of environment rehabilitation and climate change by reducing carbon emissions, when we plant trees,” Mswelanto explains.
He adds that because North West is historically known as a citrus area, Sun City opted to plant orange trees. That way, they can also play a part in, “[reviving] citrus farming in the region and encourage the youth to be more involved in farming, which is pivotal for food security”, he says.
“We also want to assist with uplifting unemployed youth from the community with jobs and skills development.”
Tomorrow’s top citrus producer
The company’s efforts to play a positive role in the lives of youth, led to them acting as a sponsor to six unemployed youths from the Moses Kotane municipal region. They completed a 12-month Citrus Business Management learnership in May.
Joyce Banda, Godfrey Moseneke, Tiro Sifora, Lucia Kgafela, Linda Mpongo and Thabang Ngubeni completed the course through the Citrus Academy, and Sun City Resort sponsored their transport and lunch packs.
Ngubeni, one of the qualifying youths, says as a young future farmer the programme has helped him to get acquainted with new technologies whilst also learning from traditional methods.
He believes that this exposure gives rise to “the potential [offering] the perfect fusion of new and traditional solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges to help mitigate the effects of climate change and grow more food with fewer inputs”.
Thanks to the programme, not only is Ngubeni excited about his farming future, he plans on becoming one of the reputable producers of citrus fruit in Moruleng Village, his home town.
Trees of inspiration
Meanwhile, Mswelanto reckons that the opportunities are endless for the participating six. Backed with their NQF Level 4 qualification, Mswelanto says the aim is to have Ngubeni and his peers continue to plant citrus trees and care for them, as well as learn tree pruning techniques from Sun City Resort’s landscaping company.
“Through this project, which has included the planting of 100 citrus trees at two schools – 50 trees at Sedibelo Secondary School in Moruleng, and 50 at Temogo Special Needs School in Mogwase – sponsored by Sigma Industry South, we are doing both skills transfer and community upliftment projects.”
Sun City Resort also sponsored soil and water testing, soil preparation, irrigation and fencing costs worth R130 000, as well as a vegetable garden at Sedibelo with a borehole valued at R155 000. “These trees will provide a crop for the schools to feed their pupils or for them to sell to raise funds to buy things such as stationery,” explains Mswelanto.
Climate change goals
Mswelanto says the project is quite important to them as they are a contributor to carbon emissions through shuttle fuel consumption, generators, refrigeration and disposal of waste to landfill.
“It is important for Sun City to form part of initiatives that seeks to reduce the impact to the environment. We share Sun International’s targets that are cascaded to units for implementation, which include year on year reduction of carbon emissions by 2.6% over a 5-year cycle.”
In line with this climate change goal, the gaming and hospitality company will plant 550 orange and lemon trees at the resort this year to maintain and further the programme and give qualified trainees internships.
Mswelanto says the planting of trees is set to be a practical training area for the youth that has already received theoretical training from Citrus Academy. They hope to use the fruits within the resort and selling of citrus to local markets can be explored at a later stage.
ALSO READ: Tackling climate change, one tree at a time
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