Sasolburg – Sasol Mining on Tuesday, 09 December 2014, handed over an upgraded health centre to the Ngwathe Municipality in Koppies near Sasolburg in the Free State.

The project is one of the community development projects implemented by Sasol Mining as part of its Social and Labour Plan (SLP) for the Sigma: Mooikraal Operation. The plan also highlights the company’s commitment to making a tangible difference in communities where it operates.

In 2012, Peter Steenkamp, Senior Vice President, Sasol Mining announced that Sasol Mining and the Free State Department of Health had identified a need to upgrade the Kganya Community Health Centre. The clinic serves around 20 000 households within the Ngwathe local municipality and previously lacked the capacity and resources to provide a full range of primary health services, including maternity, dental, tuberculosis, emergency and HIV/AIDS treatment.

The upgraded clinic addresses all those needs. Double the previous size of the clinic, it boasts essentials such as additional consulting rooms, a larger emergency room, and an improved pharmacy. It also has a medicine storage facility, an operating theatre with new equipment, and new furniture. Sasol Mining has also invested in improving the clinic’s sewage reticulation and water supply system by installing a 10 000 litre water supply tank.

This is the second clinic that Sasol Mining is handing over to a community as part of its Social and Labour Plan commitments approved by the Department of Mineral Resources. In 2011, the company upgraded and handed over the eMzinoni Clinic in Bethal, Mpumalanga. The clinic can now provide healthcare services such as dental care, overnight care, a maternity ward, consultation and wound dressing rooms.

Looking at 2014, Sasol Mining this year spent approximately R30 million on improving the quality of life for those in communities it operates.

The company this year handed over a fully equipped fire station in Leandra in the Govan Mbeki Municipality, and also improved the road infrastructure of Nthoroane near Greylingstad in the Dipaleseng Municipality. Both municipalities are in Mpumalanga.

Sasol Mining has committed a further R25 million for community development projects in 2015.

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