• COUNTRY IN FOCUS
SOUTH AFRICA:
IN THE WAKE
OF CORONA’S
CARNAGE
As South Africa continues feeling the pinch under level four lockdown
regulations, a number of African Mining’s usual contributors share their
views on the impact of Covid-19 on the mining industry.
The South African mining industry is better-geared
towards dealing with Covid-19 and its economic
fallout than any other industry in the world. In the
past, both the gold and platinum sectors have endured
months on end of violent strikes, damage to property,
warfare between unions and the murder of some of its best
workers by rival union members or trigger-happy police or
security forces.
Leon Louw Leon Louw
The South African mining industry has long been providing mobile
clinics to health departments in the fight against TB and HIV and will
continue to do so in containing the spread of other infectious diseases
like Covid-19.
The workers at most bigger mining companies have access to medical
facilities on the premises.
14 • African Mining •May 2020
Shutdowns are nothing new to the South African mining
industry. Neither are commodity downturns and economic
strife; or containing infectious diseases. South African mines
have been grappling with the spread of Tuberculosis and HIV
for many years. The larger mining companies have their own
medical facilities and employ their own doctors and medical
staff. Testing and screening of workers are part of their daily
routine, and all employees, no matter what function they
perform, are given a full medical test when they return after a
period of absence.
Although the severity of the impact of Covid-19 on both the
health and economy of the country cannot be underestimated,
the South African government and its mining industry (a key
pillar of the South African economy) are more than capable
of handling this new challenge with extreme competence, as
they have in the past, and as they will do in the future. During
the five-week lockdown (and at the time of writing), a number
of regular contributors to African Mining, and a few thought
leaders in the mining industry, shared their views about
Covid-19 and its impact on the South African economy and
especially the mining industry. Here are their articles in full
(edited by Leon Louw).
www. africanmining.co.za