JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore mining company Kumba has provided a wide range of essential services in its host communities, while also responding directly with additional support to help alleviate the health and economic effects of Covic-19, the company said on Monday.

Beyond the company’s breadth of support initiatives and following the lead of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet, the Kumba board had resolved to donate the equivalent of a third of their personal directors’ fees or salaries for the next quarter towards Covid-19 relief initiatives, while the executive team had selected to contribute to the employee matching scheme supported by the Anglo American Foundation. 

The Anglo American Foundation has pledged to match employees’ personal donations – up to an initial aggregate value of $1-million, giving a total matched value of $2-million – to a number of local organisations, including the Solidarity Fund. 

“We play a vital role towards the sustainability of our host communities. We have developed a community response plan that ensures that we continue to provide essential services to over 300 000 community members that many depend on each day,” said Kumba CE Themba Mkhwanazi.

In a release to Mining Weekly, the company said it had been providing food parcels, drinking water, emergency services and support to health facilities and social development programmes, including Families South Africa.

In addition, it had collaborated with the provincial health department to increase access to healthcare services for community members by enabling more effective screening through scanners and polymerase chain reaction testing machines, which can be used remotely to test and release results in 24 hours without going to a laboratory.

Testing centres had been established through the Ulysses Gogi Modise Wellness Clinic and Tsantsabane Hospital, as well as quarantine and isolation centres within host communities. 

Kumba is part of the joint operations centre working with various stakeholders, including the Tsantsabane municipality, local government, local businesses, the South African Police Services, community policing forums, the South African National Defence Force, as well as the provincial health department during the Covid-19 lockdown, to respond to community needs.

“We are committed to supporting government, our people and our host communities to combat Covid-19 and we believe the personal contributions will make a meaningful impact to our communities towards curbing the pandemic,” Mkhwanazi said.