Sibanye-Stillwater accredited to dispense Covid-19 vaccines as third wave tears through SA

SIBANYE-Stillwater said it hoped to immunise up to 330,000 people drawn from its employee complement, employee families, and “door step” communities against Covid-19 after the South African government approved accreditation to dispense vaccines.

The vaccines will be administered at 44 healthcare facilities at the company’s platinum group metal (PGM) operations in Marikana in the North West province, and its Libanon and Driefontein mines in the Gauteng province, as well as its Beatrix mine in the Free State.

Sibanye-Stillwater said it was ready to assist the government further with the wider roll-out of vaccines. “This is an extremely important process which we are thrilled to be commencing,” said Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater.

Sibanye-Stillwater said at its annual results announcement that it was prepared to spend R200m vaccinating employees and their families, although it’s likely the expenditure will be less than that estimate as the government had purchased vaccines. Healthcare schemes are also making contributions to the vaccination cost.

“We can do about 18,000 vaccinations a day so that’s our workforce of 80,000 in about a week,” said James Wellsted, spokesman for Sibanye-Stillwater. A further 250,000 family and community members could also be reached, according to the company’s calculations. There was potential to go beyond this, Wellsted said.

South Africa’s vaccination drive has had halting progress at best. The rollout was disrupted from the outset after the government disposed of Astra-Zeneca vaccines after deciding they would be less effective against the Beta strain of the virus.

The supply of alternative Johnson & Johnson vaccines was then delayed after doses were destroyed following their contamination at a US supplier to the vaccine manufacturer.

A third wave of the virus is currently tearing through South Africa. Some 17,493 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Wednesday, according to data issued by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). Gauteng continues to account for the majority of infections with 10,806 cases in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate is 24.9%, the NCID said.