Construction World March 2021

CEMENT & CONCRETE

ENSURINGSUSTAINABILITY Construction World spoke to Njombo Lekula , MD of PPC Southern Africa about how PPC is confronting the realities of sustainability in a COVID-19 era.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced PPC? COVID-19 has given us an opportunity to reflect on how we support our employees, stakeholders and communities where we operate. Our contributions and efforts to empower the community to experience a better quality of life have been focused on providing sustainable support. Responding to local needs fundamentally brought to the fore by COVID-19, PPC as part of its ongoing CSI initiatives continued to support the community in the fight against COVID-19 through mobile clinics. Working closely with local authorities, the four mobile clinics, with a pick-up trailer that is used for medication across Gauteng, continue to be available for testing and general healthcare. Our impact-based approach to contributions across the business has enabled us to ensure that the total investment of R6,5-m (R3,5-m in Tshwane and R3-m in Johannesburg) which was made in our FY20 in mobile clinics, offer the relief in COVID-19 screening and testing the country mostly needed. We are humbled to have the partnership with the Tshwane Department of Health. Working closely with them, the nurses and support staff required to improve access to healthcare in the province; we are encouraged to know these clinics will continue to provide a lasting impact during this pandemic and beyond while increasing access to basic health services. Are you seeing a recovery now that the construction industry is operating again? Infrastructure projects will lead to the revival of the construction

industry and the creation of much-needed jobs. With R100-billion Infrastructure Fund now in operation in the country, we remain optimistic about our South African business. In the interim, PPC has seen a significant improvement in its retail business following the first lockdown. This choice to buy 100% local and 100% quality products from PPC gave us the opportunity to showcase the full capabilities of our operations while increasing the value we bring to projects. Government road projects have also played their part. While we are pleased with the gains made thus far, it is unfortunate that the transport and bulk loading strikes and power outages have had a negative impact on the gains we have made. Cement is a technical product, we remain a partner to the sector that is ready to make use of our technical expertise to innovate and advance the development of projects through our national footprint. How has the pandemic influenced the way in which PPC does business? The global pandemic has worked to strengthen our resolve to provide 100% local products developed by us while supporting local companies and partners. The economic and operational challenges that existed before the pandemic were brought to the fore in March 2020. The ailing economy and market conditions that already existed worked to accelerate the process of restructuring which started before COVID-19. The pandemic prevented us from honouring our colleagues who left the business during the lockdown. Some of these individuals had been with us for more than 40 years and it saddens us to not have had the opportunity to physically celebrate

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