Mining Weekly reports that the Minerals Council SA and several labour unions have reiterated their support for SA’s national Covid-19 vaccination programme and have urged all industry employees to choose to get vaccinated as soon as they have the opportunity to do so.

The labour unions include the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, the National Union of Mineworkers, Solidarity and Uasa. The parties have indicated their support for the national #IChooseVacciNation campaign, while noting that vaccination was voluntary and that no employee would be coerced into getting vaccinate or discriminated against if they did not get vaccinated. The mining industry’s vaccination programme is being undertaken under the Department of Health’s (DoH’s) occupational health site programme, through which 14 primary sites and 18 permanent and temporary outreach sites are currently operational. Through the mining industry’s endeavours, about 34,000 employees and contractors have been vaccinated to date. These includes healthcare workers vaccinated under the Sisonke programme. In addition, a further 15 primary sites and five permanent and temporary outreach sites have received the requisite permits from the DoH and are expecting to be operational in the next two weeks. A further 27 primary sites have applied for registration.

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