According to Mining News Pro - “We support all efforts to enforce social distancing, including
confining most people to their homes to prevent social and nonessential
business activities from midnight on Thursday, March 26, until Thursday,
April 16,” states Menar MD Vuslat Bayoglu.
Menar’s subsidiaries include mining and exploration companies. They
are Canyon Coal, with operations in Mpumalanga and Gauteng; Zululand
Anthracite Colliery in KwaZulu-Natal; and Kangra, in Mpumalanga.
“The health and safety of our employees is our top priority. We have,
therefore, commenced procedures to place all Menar group mines,
opencast and underground, as well as our processing plants on care and
maintenance, to allow all our employees time to return in a safe and
orderly manner to their homes, before the start of the mandatory
lockdown,” Bayoglu said
“Safeguarding and maintaining our infrastructure along with the
continued compliance with all relevant health and safety, environmental
and other relevant legislative requirements will remain in place
throughout the national lockdown,” Bayoglu added.
He expressed hope that the President’s orders would be fully complied with and normal business would resume afterwards.
“We have made it publicly known that we plan to invest R7-billion in
greenfield investments in the next two years and create over 5 000 jobs.
The efficacy of the President’s directive will be critical in
rebuilding the economy.”
“These tough measures are necessary to combat the Covid-19 pandemic
and we urge all our employees, partners and stakeholders, along with all
our fellow South Africans to comply with all the rules and regulations
issued by the South African National Coronavirus Command Council in
order to halt the spread of the pandemic and ensure South Africans’
health is preserved and to avoid the loss of life,” Bayoglu concluded.