‘AMCU union urges SA mining firms to convene summit on coronavirus’ 6 March 2020

 The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union has urged mining companies operating in South Africa to urgently convene a summit to discuss how prepared the industry is to handle the COVID-19 outbreak. Health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday a 38-year-old man from KwaZulu-Natal had become South Africa's first confirmed case of the disease, which is spreading across the globe after first cropping up in China last December.

In its statement, issued after Mkhize's announcement, AMCU said mineworkers -- who have to work in cramped areas with compressed air and high heat -- were particularly vulnerable. "Working spaces like lifts known as "cages" are the ideal breeding ground for this disease," the union said. "AMCU calls upon mining houses to call an urgent coronavirus summit , as a forum to gauge and bolster the state of preparedness for COVID-19 in the mining sector."