Mall Of Thembisa
The Mall of Thembisa, covering 44,809 square meters and featuring over 140 tenants, includes major food anchors such as Super Spar, Shoprite, Boxer, and Roots. It also offers comprehensive banking services, major fashion brands, Dischem, and Clicks.
In August 2018, McCormick Property Development appointed Pheme Consulting (now Ludo Investments) as the Community Liaison Partner for the R850 million Mall of Thembisa project. Serving a community of over 2.2 million, our mandate was to prioritize local employment and empower local businesses.
Jason McCormick, Managing Director of McCormick Property Development, emphasized the “local first” approach. Over 70% of construction employees were Thembisa residents, resulting in approximately 2,500 local jobs. Once operational, it is anticipated that nearly 80% of the mall’s staff will be from Thembisa.
Despite challenges in the construction sector, the Mall of Thembisa opened on November 20th without any strikes. In May 2019, we conducted public participation meetings to introduce the community to the mall and outline our employment and empowerment strategies. Engaging with over 11,000 community members and representatives, we received positive feedback and support.
Our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) included daily employment and empowerment reports, data collection, and direct communication between the community and developers. We developed Empowerploy®, an online portal, which by May 2020, had registered 3,760 businesses and nearly 16,000 job seekers, demonstrating our capability to manage projects of various scales.
