Campaign to end sexual violence in mines begins

JOHANNESBURG – Minerals Council South Africa yesterday launched a campaign to address sexual and gender-based violence and harassment on South Africa’s mines and announced a bold target to boost the number of women in the mining industry by 150percent.

The council said that the campaign would complement policies that were already in place, saying that the industry had a responsibility to address the scourge, given the predominance of men.

Titled “Stop abuse of women”, the campaign spells out the potential consequences of abusive action.

Council chief executive Roger Baxter said that the council was investigating setting up industry-level mechanisms for the safe reporting of incidents of violence and harassment, and guidelines to ensure a safe and comfortable working environment for women.

“We encourage all member companies, others in the industry and residents of mining communities and labour sending areas to take action against gender-based violence and abuse in their workplaces and communities and, where they observe any such incidents, not to stand aside but rather to report those incidents and take any other appropriate action,” Roger said.