• Anglo American has formally handed over one of its buildings to the Wits Business School.
• Moving forward the company’s 47 Main Street building in the Johannesburg CBD will become the Centre for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation.
• The facility will offer business education, incubation, and acceleration services for youth and entrepreneurs in the Johannesburg inner-city.

Earlier today Anglo American celebrated the official handover of one of its iconic buildings to the Wits Business School (WBS).

This is not the first time that the pair have collaborated, with Anglo American having committed to the refurbishment of the Wits Planetarium in 2022.

The latest collaboration between the two sees Anglo American hand over its building location on 47 Main Street in the Johannesburg CBD, where it will become the WBS’ Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE) and New Venture Creation.

Also dubbed the Wits Crucible, the Centre will focus on providing crucial business education, incubation, and acceleration services for youth and entrepreneurs in the Johannesburg inner-city.

“The Wits Crucible will provide four key units of entrepreneurship development support for youth, student entrepreneurs and Wits graduates. These will include a Development Unit to provide aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills to ideate, launch and grow a successful business. The Crucible will also include a Venture Screening and Selection Unit which 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,” the WBS shared in a release with Hypertext.

Unpacking some of the other initiatives where hand overs happened in recent years, Anglo American highlighted that last year, it handed over the 45 Main Street building to the Maharishi Invincibility Institute (MII). Added to this, De Beers transferred ownership of the Harry Oppenheimer House building in Kimberley to the Sol Plaatje University, allowing it to expand its Centre for Continuous Professional Development.

“Seeing our buildings find new purpose in the hands of exemplary partners like Wits not only proves the power of partnerships, but also supports South Africa’s national imperatives – education and job creation through entrepreneurship and will set up a whole new generation of young people for success,” noted Nolitha Fakude, chairperson of the Anglo American management board in SA.

“The CfE embodies the power of partnerships to enable young entrepreneurs to turn their innovative ideas into thriving businesses and to unleash the potential of small businesses to drive economic growth not only in Johannesburg but in other inner cities and townships throughout South Africa,” added Professor Maurice Radebe, head and director of the WBS.

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