• COUNTRY IN FOCUS
The South African government responded by announcing
the creation of a relief fund. This may be a saving grace for
some of the SMEs most affected by suspension of services
and payments from clients. The fact that the relief support
is based on demographic criteria is however concerning.
A significant number of SMEs that offer vendor services
or contractor or consulting services to the mining sector,
were created by individuals who were offered severance
packages to vacate their positions to be filled by designated
BEE candidates or were retrenched as a result of the two
recent economic downturn periods. This talent and skillsets
may now be permanently lost to the mining sector or
to the international market. Initial indications were that
there was no criteria set to determine whether or not the
applicants were experiencing financial difficulty prior to the
announcement of the lockdown period. The government
would also need to make a real effort to get the notoriously
ineffectiveness of state department bureaucracy to function
more effectively.
The mining sector is the most regulated industry, subject to
a multitude of occupational health and hygiene regulations
and legislation. Most mines already have annual medicals for
all their employees, mine clinics and awareness campaigns
ranging from TB to HIV and AIDS. The mining industry is
possibly the best prepared sector in the country to respond to
and handle pandemic situations.
The potential of remote work will now be considered more
seriously by employers. Various dimensions will most likely
be considered, ranging from measuring effectiveness and
outputs to addressing challenges. It is conceivable that the
IT sector will experience an upswing as a consequence. The
push toward greater onsite automation should also gain
momentum, as well as realising the potential of remote
sensing and Earth observation methods to monitor site
activities and conduct change monitoring. The application
of these methods will persist well past the travel bans and
restrictions, to reduce onsite presence of high cost staff and
management, and bring the site visit to the boardroom.
A complete discussion of all possible post-Covid-19 scenarios
is beyond the scope of this article. In short, there are two
main possible scenarios. The first scenario is the best case:
government allows the private sector to take the lead in the
economic recovery programme, by supporting actions and
scrapping or suspending all the current legislation or planned
legislation that led to the weakening of the economy prior
to the lockdown period. The SMEs are the true heroes of the
economy when it comes to innovation and job creation.
The second scenario is the worst case: government seizes
the opportunity of the sentiment in the country to motivate
pushing through ideology-driven policy and legislation such
as the National Health Insurance (NHI) and gaining access to
the pension funds. It would be catastrophic if the lockdown
period is extended or another lockdown period is announced
during South Africa’s peak flu season.
Only time will tell if the lockdown measures and the reaction
following it will put another nail in the coffin of the South
African mining sector. This experience has undoubtedly
changed the way in which the mining sector will operate and
conduct business in future.
22 • African Mining •May 2020
www. africanmining.co.za