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Mantashe pleads with mining companies to speed-up COVID-19 testing

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Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, has pleaded with mining companies to speed up testing in the instance where there are signs or suspected COVID-19 infections.
He was visiting Sibanye-Stillwater Platinum Mine, near Rustenburg in the North West, where he inspected the mine’s compliance with lockdown regulations, on Wednesday.
Mantashe says though they are happy with how some mining companies have responded to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there are, however, some setbacks.
“Mines are doing well, particularly up to screening, which is what we went through here again. Screening is thorough, is good but many mines are not doing well with testing. That is what we should intensify and we have explained to people that we don’t say test everybody. But the slightest sign of COVID-19, please test because we don’t want to have a disaster where you have two workers testing positive underground and the whole crew tests positive.”

‘No retrenchment under lockdown’ 

Mantashe says no mine will be allowed to retrench workers – citing the national lockdown as a reason. Mining companies, such as Village Main Reef, Zululand Anthracite, Samancor and Kangra Coal have announced their plan to retrench workers.

Mantashe says although some mining companies had issued Section 189 notices to unions, which means a consultative process regarding retrenchments, the department is against that.

“There is no mine that has issued statements that they want to retrench. Four mines that said so, we sent them back and said withdraw those letters. You can’t send Section 189 when there is a lockdown. So there’s no mine now. At the end of the lockdown, we’ll talk to the mine.”

Impact of coronavirus  

Mining is one of the sectors that have been re-opened following the easing of lockdown regulations under Level-4 on 1 May.

The Level-5  lockdown had a negative effect on different sectors of the economy with some companies considering job cuts.

Currently, the National Union of Mineworkers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) is at loggerheads with Kimberley Ekapa Mining JV following its decision to cut workers’ salaries.

The unions say this is an ambush and exploitation. They also claim that their members were paid less than half of their monthly salaries.  The mine says the decision was prompted by a decline in profits because of the lockdown. Desperate workers have turned to unions for help.

The graphic below shows the sectors that are allowed to operate during Level-4 lockdown: 

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Reporting by Keadimilwe Moalusi 

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