At TEBA Pty (Ltd), we are committed to delivering programmes and initiatives that Unlock Human Potential. We work with various stakeholders to effect a positive impact by providing services relating to health, community development, tracing for unpaid benefits and recruitment-related services. Working through partnerships, we deliver solutions that meet the needs of our customers and their employees.
TEBA was established more than a century ago, post the second Anglo-Boer War in 1902, to support mines in meeting one of our country’s critical national priorities: to expand mineral production. Initially, the role of TEBA solely focused on recruiting mining personnel.
From the word go, TEBA formally recorded the details of every mine worker that has ever been recruited by the company. As a result, and over time, TEBA has developed what is regarded today as the most extensive database of miners and ex-miners in the country, with more than 350,000 active workers registered on its system at any given time.
As mining operations grew and new mines were established across SA, TEBA grew its presence parallel to that to serve the mines and mineworkers right where they are. Today, TEBA has an unparalleled reach through a strategically located network of offices, branches, satellite offices and representatives in mining communities across South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho.
TEBA quickly realised that our mineworkers needed more than a job. As most of them hailed from rural areas, they also needed transport. They needed to communicate with their families and be able to communicate with them. To fulfil this need, TEBA also started investing in rural support programmes to create roads, water infrastructure, healthcare clinics and food security projects.
In the late 1970s, TEBA and the mines introduced an industry-first incentive scheme to reward short-term contract workers for opting to make mining a full-time occupation. This contributed significantly to stabilising a more readily available pool of skills in the SA mining industry.
TEBA Cash was established in the mid-80s and fulfilled a two-tier role. On the one hand, it reduced admin for the mines by replacing their Paymaster system and ensuring an alternative means to pay mine workers. On the other hand, it provided cost-effective banking services, plus a much-needed savings facility for the mine workers and their families.
By ±1980, the SA mines managed to attain a 100% staff complement for the 1st time, and by 1987, no less than 500,000 of those workers were recruited by TEBA from various countries in Southern Africa.
TEBA reached a major historic milestone in 2005, when the company was bought over by Dr James Motlatsi, one of the fathers of organised labour in the country. As the first black owner of the company, Dr Motlatsi spear-headed a transformation strategy to correct mining legacy issues from the past and place the company on course towards its new mission: fully unlocking human potential.
As a condition of his offer to purchase TEBA from the original owners, Dr Motlatsi insisted that 25% of the shares of TEBA be transferred to its employees. As a result, the TEBA Employee Trust (TET) was formally established in 2006, providing a way for TEBA employees to become co-owners and create long-term wealth prospects for themselves.
In 2010, TEBA partnered with the Ministries of Health in Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland to establish a dedicated programme for the delivery of TB screening, testing and treatment for miners, ex-miners and mining communities in Southern Africa. To date, more than 600,000 patients have been successfully registered on the programme.
Statistics show that mineworkers and their families are at high risk of exposure to TB and HIV/AIDS, with a disproportionate incidence rate of 2 500-3 000/100 000 that by far surpasses the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold of 250/100,000. In 2013, TEBA was appointed to establish Point of Care (POC) Clinics to alleviate this issue, with funding from the UR SA and support from the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), as well as the U.S President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
According to ODMWA, mineworkers who contract occupational diseases at the mines are entitled to compensation and mining employers are responsible for their lifelong monitoring and surveillance for possible compensable occupational lung diseases. Due to its large database and presence in the mining communities, TEBA was commissioned by the mines in 2016 to track down ex-miners. As a result, more than 3,000 miners, ex-miners and their beneficiaries have been successfully traced and assisted with claiming benefits.
On 12 April 2016, TEBA, on behalf of participating mines, entered an MoU with the Mozambique Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MITESS) and the Bank of Mozambique (BM) to collect, transfer and pay deferred wages to migrant Mozambican mineworkers in South Africa. This new arrangement counteracted former issues and fast-tracked payment of deferred wages for these mineworkers.