• COUNTRY IN FOCUS
experience similar exposure to the risk, lack the flexibility and
resources to protect themselves.
Mines have already pioneered testing and treatment for a
range of reasons. Alcohol and drug testing, for example, is
conducted to ensure responsible operation of machinery.
Other testing has been to manage Tuberculosis outbreaks
and facilitate treatment for HIV-positive employees while
maintaining confidentiality. There has even been, in some
instances, roll-out of treatment to families in the case of HIV
infections. Community engagement is an important aspect of
treatment protocols, and the mining sector has programmes
for active engagement that can be adapted for this new threat.
Stakeholder engagement
The management of the Covid-19 risk will also demand from
mines a high level of stakeholder engagement, especially
when it comes to managing infection outbreaks in the mine
community. When government lifts its lockdown regulations,
the responsibility for applying and managing isolation protocols
in public spaces is likely to fall on the main employers in an area
– when isolation is required for people who have contact with
infected mine employees, for instance.
In these situations, mines will need to communicate their
Covid-19 messages with clarity and trust. They will also need to
understand how their stakeholder communities perceive the
issues and risks at hand, in order to effectively communicate the
reasons behind the need for isolation and other controls. For
example, it will not be possible to show whether an employee
was infected by a community member or vice versa, but there will
be pressure on the mine to prevent the infection from spreading.
Should there be rolling lockdowns as a result of localised
infection outbreaks – potentially leading to the mine being
temporarily closed – the mine may be blamed for the economic
impact on surrounding businesses. This could lead to immense
pressure from the local business community, which could
threaten the mine’s social licence to operate.
Without a foundation of prior collaboration and sound
communication channels, it will be difficult to ensure
community buy-in and cooperation in addressing infection
outbreaks and their impacts.
Supply chains
While mines themselves have various options to pursue in
managing Covid-19 risks on site – and to an extent in their
surrounding communities – there are aspects of their supply
chain that will prove less controllable. It is not clear, for example,
how or when the bi-lateral arrangements between countries
will be reinstated to allow free movement of goods and people.
Moving copper cathode from Zambia or the Democratic
Republic of Congo to the port of Durban represents the kind of
logistical challenge that requires high-level national decisions.
It is likely that South Africa will be forced to select the countries
we can travel to – but this selection may often be at the expense
of other countries. We might only be able to travel to the EU, for
instance, if we keep our borders with other sub-Saharan countries
closed. Similarly, we could be forced to choose between travel to
China, on the one hand, and to the US or Europe, on the other –
depending on policies they decide to adopt.
This could have significant impacts on the trading ability
of South African service providers who are active in Africa.
Certainly, the opening of borders globally is likely to be an
uneven process fraught with trade-offs and bureaucratic delays
– with inevitable flare-ups of infections impacting on countries’
decisions regarding cross-border access.
30 • African Mining •May 2020