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Mining companies urged to focus far more on health of communities

9th February 2015

By: Kim Cloete

Creamer Media Correspondent

  

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Tuberculosis (TB) is a silent killer in many communities and deserves far more attention from mining companies.

“We need to change our regulatory regime to recognise the biggest killer in our mines – TB,” South Africa’s Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, told the 2015 Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Monday.

He highlighted that, in South Africa, 167 people died owing to mining accidents in 2009, a figure that was dwarfed by the 1598 TB-related deaths in the same year.

“TB is a silent death. The time has arrived to change the manner in which we do things. We are faced with a world crisis that nobody notices – TB,” Motsoaledi stressed.

The Health Minister noted that mineworkers were extremely vulnerable to TB.

“500 000 people working on the mines come from rural areas and surrounding countries like Mozambique, Swaziland and Botswana. One TB-infected person has the potential to infect 15 others in a lifetime.  [As a result of] HIV, TB has come back with a vengeance. If we deal with TB at the same pace as we are now, it will take 180 years to eradicate it.”

Motsoaledi called on mining executives to work with health authorities to address TB as a community disease, particularly as it was spread far and wide.

Within the Southern African Development Community, Ministers of health, mining, labour and finance, as well as mining houses, had agreed to work together to develop a common database on who had TB.  They had also agreed on the need for a common treatment protocol.

Motsoaledi chided foreign mining companies that applied different standards when operating in Africa.

“When they have operations in the developed part of the world, their standards are different. They change when they come to African countries. Standards must be the same. You can’t pay people a certain amount in platinum mines in Australia, but then apply cheap labour in South Africa. That mindset must [also] change in terms of accommodation and the prevention of disease.”

Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources Godfrey Oliphant said, however, that some good initiatives had been implemented to try and prevent TB when people returned home to their families from the mines, pointing out the Eastern Cape, where there were currently one-stop centres where former mineworkers could get tested and treated for TB.

Meanwhile, several mining executives raised the matter of Ebola, which had affected several countries in West Africa to varying degrees.

Rio Tinto MD in Guinea Ismael Diakite said fortunately none of his staff or contractors had been infected during the Ebola outbreak. However, they had learnt important lessons.

“The government and mining companies need to reinforce the health system to protect against infectious diseases. We need to develop some kind of well-orchestrated and integrated synergy. We were at the centre of this outbreak and our first measure was to ensure that we aligned with the government in [terms of] developing preventive measures.”

Diakite explained that Rio Tinto had also provided food to supporting populations.

The establishment of an African Centre for Disease Control was but one of the proposals put forward at the African Union, Motsoaledi stated.

“If we had [this centre], it wouldn’t have taken so long to [detect] Ebola,”emphasised the Minister, who also called on mining companies to support the training of more occupational health specialists.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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