The facilities will not only benefit employees and service providers, but also the community.
KUMBA Iron Ore’s Sishen and Kolomela mines have identified facilities in the mine and in the community that can be used for isolation and quarantine purposes.
Themba Mkhwanazi, Kumba CEO, pointed out that part of the work to minimise the spread of the coronavirus included the isolation of those who have been tested and are awaiting their test results.
One of the identified facilities, located in Mapoteng, Kathu has been reserved as an isolation centre. The other facility in Kathu is in the Sivos Training Centre and has been kept aside as a quarantine site.
The Mapoteng facility consists of park homes that can accommodate 400 people, of which 50 rooms have been prepared for suspected cases. These are fully furnished rooms with en-suite bathroom facilities, a communal kitchen and a laundry. People in isolation will have their meals prepared and delivered to them.
The Sivos Training Centre currently has 25 rooms available and another 120 rooms will be refurbished to get them ready for quarantine purposes for Kumba employees, service providers and members of the community.
In Postmasburg, the company has prepared Postmasburg Hotel with 28 fully-furnished rooms to be used as a quarantine centre.
“In addition, we constructed the emergency operation theatre which will be prepared as an ICU centre for critical patients and donated 60 hospital beds to be placed at the Postmasburg Hospital. We also erected marquee tents, including one at the showgrounds, to use as self-isolation areas for community members who cannot self-isolate. Furthermore, we are creating more facilities with 400 rooms to be prepared and made available to cater for employees, service providers and the community,” Mkhwanazi stated.
“It is indeed heartening to see this kind of work, and the strides we have made to ensure that we combat the virus.”
He urged management teams to continue collaborating with other stakeholders such as the Department of Health, the local municipality and other mining houses in the region to ensure that “we adequately support our communities”. “This will ensure that the initiative reaches all our communities.”