A human rights activism group, Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) urges mining companies to make commitment to ensuring that surrounding communities and their employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available.
This comes at a time when governments world over have been working on securing available vaccines for citizens.
“As countries race to secure vaccines for their citizens, SARW would like to urge SADC governments to ensure a just distribution of the vaccine and to make sure that marginalised mining communities are not abandoned,” the activism group says.
“We also encourage mines to support African governments’ vaccine procurement efforts and, as we wait for the vaccines to become widely available, to ensure that all employees and the communities in which they live are fully protected against the Covid-19.”
Although Africa managed to survive the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, SARW fears worse from the second wave.
“For a period in 2020, the African continent appeared to have weathered the storm of the first wave without a significant loss of life, in comparison to other countries with more robust healthcare systems. This relief has been short-lived as the second wave of the pandemic has proved to be more forceful and deadlier than the first,” the activism group says.
“The early days of 2021 tell us that what we witnessed last year could have been just a curtain-raiser as more countries in the region have reported a sharp increase in the number of cases and overwhelming numbers of deaths.”
“The second wave is jeopardizing economic recovery plans and creating uncertainty within the commodity markets,” the group goes on.
SARW also urges the mining sector to continue supporting mining communities to ensure that they are not left behind in economic recovery plans after the Covid-19 crisis.
“SARW wants to encourage the sector to continue seeking new and effective ways of bringing the communities from whose land they are extracting natural resources into conversations that facilitate their economic recovery.”
