Diversified miner Anglo American on August 4 announced the handover of its 45 Main Street building, in the Johannesburg central business district (CBD), to nonprofit private education institution the Maharishi Invincibility Institute.

The building forms part of the company’s former Johannesburg CBD Campus, where its South African headquarters were housed until the miner relocated its Johannesburg CBD staff to a new consolidated corporate office in Rosebank, north of the city centre, in 2021.

The institute has, since its inception in 2007, been dedicated to empowering underprivileged youths (and sometimes older students), in the inner city and from all of the surrounding areas, by providing them with access to quality education.

The institute focuses on access to on-the-job training for students and actively works to help graduates secure sustainable jobs at some of the country’s biggest corporates.

It boasts a preschool, a high school, a college and 12 Industry Academies, which get students into critical scare-skills jobs.

Speaking to Engineering News & Mining Weekly on the sidelines of the handover event, Maharishi founder and CEO Dr Taddy Blecher said Anglo had turned down several high- paying offers for the building.

He lauded the company for choosing to donate the building to the institute instead, thereby continuing to give back to communities and striving to bring about change in the inner city.

Blecher also said that, as part of the agreement to secure the donation of the building, the institute had set up a maintenance fund with several partners to ensure the sustainability and longevity of the site and the precinct.

He noted that there were some internal renovations that had to be undertaken to convert the building from an office space to an educational one, with Paragon Architects to undertake the interior work.

Therefore, he said, the first cohort of students would begin making use of the building in about six weeks’ time. The building is expected to be fully operational by January next year.

This donation builds on Anglo’s previous donation to the institute, in 2005, of the 9 Ntemi Piliso Street building, which currently houses one of the institute’s campuses, and is located in close proximity to the 45 Main Road building.

Blecher emphasised that the day was not only a celebration of the new donation, but also of the success the institute had enjoyed thus far at the Ntemi Piliso Street building, where it has educated 22 000 people, and placed 19 000 into high-quality jobs.

He highlighted that the institute boasts a 94% job placement rate for graduates and that, from the over 19 000 individuals placed into jobs (excluding entrepreneurs), conservative estimates showed that they would earn R41.85-billion over their working careers.

With this new building, the institute would be able to accommodate an additional 3 000 to 3 500 students a year at the 42 000 m2 premises – more than doubling the number of students it could support.

Blecher said that the institute would now be able to educate 5 000 students a year, bringing it closer to its long-term goal of educating 100 000 students in the CBD.

Joburg Renewal

Meanwhile, Anglo is continuing to explore possibilities for the adaptive use of the rest of its historic Johannesburg CBD Campus, with several potential partners and collaborators involved in helping to develop the campus into a mixed-use precinct.

Blecher said an exodus of corporates from the CBD to the northern suburbs looked set to continue and that it was unlikely that the area would become the city’s business hub again.

However, he said this presented an opportunity to develop it for other uses.

For its part, Blecher said the institute was aiming to build an ‘Education City’ in the CBD, with it now boasting two buildings in one precinct.

The donation forms part of Anglo’s drive to play a meaningful role, along with several public and private stakeholders, in the regeneration of the Johannesburg CBD.

“We firmly believe that Johannesburg’s inner-city regeneration hinges on nurturing the potential of its young people, who represent the city’s future.

“The Maharishi Invincibility Institute has emerged as a driving force in paving pathways to opportunities for thousands of young people in the inner city, and it fills us with great pride to entrust them with the custodianship of the iconic 45 Main Street, a building that holds deep historical significance in Johannesburg’s evolution,” Anglo chairperson Nolitha Fakude said.

“Looking beyond this, we are thrilled by the strides made in the last two years through collaborative efforts with various stakeholders. Together, we have crafted a shared vision for Johannesburg’s renewal, culminating in establishing the Johannesburg CBD Coalition—a platform where the Maharishi Invincibility Institute also actively participates.

“This coalition serves as a powerful catalyst for change, fostering synergy among like-minded organisations, pooling their collective expertise, resources and insights to forge a cohesive and actionable blueprint for the city’s rejuvenation,” she added.

Blecher highlighted that the donation would enable the institute to continue to further its mission of developing a new generation of competent leaders in Johannesburg’s inner city.

“We are deeply grateful to Anglo American for their long-term and profound vision. Through our intense focus on getting youth into quality jobs, based on scarce-skills development, and on doing this in a holistic and sustainable way, we truly believe that if more companies, organisations and the government come together to tackle the city’s challenges, we can help secure a more productive future for all.

“By entrenching ourselves in the CBD, we want to play a more active part in making the innercity a more attractive and safer place to live, work and thrive,” he averred.