South African mining tycoon Daphne Mashile-Nkosi opens multimillion-rand community centre in Soweto

South African mining tycoon Daphne Mashile-Nkosi has opened a multimillion-rand community centre in Soweto, named after her late mother, the community leader Linah Mashile.

The Linah Mashile Multi-Purpose Centre in Naledi Extension II was funded by the Stanley and Daphne Nkosi Foundation, the charity Mashile-Nkosi set up with her late husband, Stanley Nkosi. It opened on Oct. 30, the eve of what would have been her mother's 96th birthday, before a crowd of residents, politicians, traditional leader Chief Vhafuwi Matsila and radio presenter Sbu Leope.

The multi-tiered building took two years and 29 days to build. It houses a church, a multi-function hall, an industrial kitchen, a business hub, counselling rooms and a theatre. It will host worship services for different congregations, a soup kitchen, education and digital skills training, workshops and entrepreneurship programmes.

Patrick Mokwena, who headed construction, thanked Mashile-Nkosi as the project's commissioner. "I have had the privilege of leading a hardworking, resilient team of bricklayers," he said.

Project manager Welcome Mashinini said working under Mashile-Nkosi brought a clear sense of accountability. "Each decision had implications for the programme, costs, quality and the people who would eventually use the building," he said.

The centre stands next to the Naledi clinic, which Linah Mashile pushed the City of Johannesburg to build. Born at Pilgrim's Rest in Mpumalanga on Oct. 31, 1930, she ran a soup kitchen in the area and was a well-known community leader. She died on Oct. 21, 2022, aged 91.

The foundation earlier built the Zakithi Nkosi Paediatric Haematology Clinic at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, named after Mashile-Nkosi's daughter, who died of a rare immune disorder. It has also funded houses, libraries and educational bursaries. Stanley Nkosi was an African National Congress underground operative who worked alongside Kgalema Motlanthe and Siphiwe Nyanda.

Mashile-Nkosi is the founder and executive chairperson of Kalagadi Manganese (Pty) Ltd., which mines a manganese deposit on three farms near Hotazel in the Northern Cape's Kalahari manganese field. She started pursuing the deposit through Kalahari Resources, registered in 2001, and has described the integrated mine, sinter plant and planned ferromanganese smelter as a $1.3 billion project.

Kgalagadi Alloys owns 44% of Kalagadi Manganese, Kalahari Resources holds 36% and the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation has 20%. ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd. once held 50% of the venture before selling its stake to Kgalagadi Alloys in 2016. The Industrial Development Corporation applied in 2020 to place Kalagadi in business rescue over its debt, a move Mashile-Nkosi opposed. The Supreme Court of Appeal later ruled that the dispute had to go to arbitration in London.

Tshwane University of Technology awarded Mashile-Nkosi an honorary doctorate this year.