South African archbishop announces partnership in Jax

In the first-ever global business initiative of its kind, the Most Rev. Thabo Makgoba, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town and metropolitan of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, came to Jacksonville on Monday to officially announce the Winds of Change Economic Empowerment Partnership.

The event was held at Environmental Services Inc. on the Southside.

At a news conference was announced a partnership between Royal Bafokeng Holdings, a $5 billion, 100 percent black-owned investment company, and N.G. Wade Investment Company, a Jacksonville-based family holding company with strong expertise in silviculture, agriculture, dairy and real estate, and African Business Development Group, the majority black-owned Diaspora company leading implementation of the Archbishop's global strategy. The partnership will be used to employ sustainable and profitable economic development through business ventures with an African, community-based character, and uses specific strategies and tools that will allow for massive poverty reduction, education improvement, better health care and positive social impact.

"On the eve of Juneteenth, this moment will be another turning point in history for the African Diaspora in the U.S. and abroad," said Makgoba. "The Bafokeng Nation created a template for how pooling a community's resources and engaging in capitalist ventures leads to economic independence. We will take their example and implement it across the globe, so black-owned companies and communities have access to foreign investment and ample resources."

The Royal Bafokeng Nation is an internationally recognized sovereign monarchy in northeast South Africa. Its land is home to the richest known deposits of platinum group metals in the world. By collecting royalties from companies allowed to mine the metals, the nation has gained considerable wealth, enough to establish a fund -- Royal Bafokeng Holdings -- charged with growth of the country's economic interests.