MINING company Exxaro Resources announced yesterday that it had successfully vaccinated more than 73 percent of its employees, including contractors.
According to the MCSA, 318 005 vaccinations had been completed in the sector by Monday, representing 70 percent of the industry’s 450 000 employees. Among them, 83 percent were fully vaccinated and 17 percent partially vaccinated. The sector intended to achieve the 80 percent vaccination target.
Exxaro attributed this feat to the ongoing partnership with retail pharmacy group Dis-Chem as well as its collaboration with the Department of Health in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces to vaccinate employees, contractors as well as their next of kin in the past year.
Exxaro group manager for health and safety, Dr Joseph Matjila, said this achievement was an affirmation of their commitment to protect their employees and their families in line with their Zero Harm policy, which also ensured that they provided access to basic healthcare services in a holistic way.
More specifically the statistics as of December 13, showed that of the total number of 14 679 employees, Exxaro had vaccinated 10 725 (73.12 percent). Of the vaccinated individuals, 64 percent were below the age of 35 years; 38 percent were between 35 and 49 years; 19 percent were between 50 and 59 years; and 1 percent were 60 years and above.
To this end, the organisations’ operations, which were leading in Limpopo, Tshikondeni, which has vaccinated 96 percent of its workforce population; Hlobane had vaccinated 90 percent followed by Grootegeluk Complex in Lephalale, which was on 81 percent. In Mpumalanga, Exxaro’s Matla mine has reached 79 percent and Belfast had vaccinated 70 percent of its employees.
Sustainability executive head Mongezi Veti said these were encouraging figures given the global and local trends of vaccinating the majority of young people, which were currently at 64 percent among their employee groups.
Matjila said for Exxaro this was not the end as the vaccination drives would continue beyond these targets, because at the heart of their business decisions was the protection of the lives of their employees and host communities by continuing to invest in economic and social sustainability programmes.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE