Spring Light Gas (SLG) Pure Energy celebrated 20 years of supplying natural gas to customers across South Africa at a gala dinner event on Friday.

Natural gas is seen as an environmental alternative to liquefied petroleum gas for heating products and producing energy.

Deon Dhlomo, chairperson of the SLG Board, said that from humble beginnings in 2002 when the company had a few members staff, it had grown to be one of the biggest suppliers of natural gas in South Africa.

“SLG started with humble beginnings in 2002 with a few clients in Durban South and three or four staff members. It grew significantly over the next 10 years from Durban South to the rest of KwaZulu-Natal and became quite attractive to external investors.

“SLG is now one of the biggest suppliers of natural gas in South Africa. We supply companies like Toyota, and we previously supplied Engen and Sapref but obviously at the moment we know they are shut down. We are also proud to supply Hulamin in Pietermaritzburg which is one of the first companies that are supplied gas on the road by trucks. Other companies are supplied the natural gas by pipe.”

Dhlomo added that as part of the company’s corporate social investment (CSI), they decided to assist schools, specifically with Maths and Science.

“As you can imagine there are areas, we can assist in terms of helping with equipment and helping teachers. We have spent at least R20 million as part of our CSI, refurbishing schools, providing science laboratory equipment and Ipads. We also have schools approach us and we are able to sit down and see how we can assist them.

“We have helped about 150 schools and impacted thirty thousand learners. We also continue to help small and medium-sized enterprises with grants and loans. We also have provided learnerships and bursaries to assist the youth and deserving individuals”

The gala dinner was also attended by the head of department for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Nhlakanipho Nkontwana.

He said it was encouraging to see a black-owned company doing so well.

“As the KwaZulu-Natal government, we have taken a resolution to build more industries and manufacture more commodities so that we can grow this economy. SLG is one of the key stakeholders that we want to work with, and we are very proud of this milestone for the company given the current economic climate which includes the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, July 2021 unrest and the April floods.”  Nkontwana added that SLG must be praised for their commitment to invest in KZN over the past 20 years.

Lelo Rantloane from Ata Capital said that SLG holds a special place in our heart.  “For as long we have been involved in SLG is how long our business has been going. We got involved in this business by backing two gentlemen who wanted to buy into SLG. The success of our business was very dependent on the success of SLG, had this not worked out we would not be around today.”  Director Bheki Moyo congratulated the company on the incredible milestone. “We are proud of our growth and know that SLG will be around for many years to come.”