The futures of both parties are intimately entwined, and getting through this crisis requires humanity and accountability
People first: CEO Mark Cutifani says Anglo American has built its response to its employees and the communities around its operations. Picture: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKO
An effective response to Covid-19 must consider people’s lives in the first instance, and livelihoods, which is about protecting lives in the medium to longer term. From South America to Southern Africa, we know our mines and our host communities are deeply connected, that they operate together as an ecosystem, and that both must be healthy to prosper.
The more effective our response to the pandemic, the more rapid the recovery. In mining’s case, the more we manage to protect and support our employees and communities, the healthier and more prosperous they will be, and the greater mining’s ability will be to drive sustained economic recovery in our countries of operation.
The programme builds on the many services we normally provide and covers health education and behavioural change initiatives, community support to combat gender-based violence, health screening and testing, support for small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs, and the provision of food parcels to those in most desperate need.
By the same token, we cannot take risks with people’s lives. Measured lockdowns, the identification and tracking of infection sources and effective isolation measures are the real tools of our ability to run our mines and support functioning communities. However, consistent with that view, we will take the hard decisions to temporarily shut operations if we feel we cannot keep our colleagues safe and healthy.
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