THOUSANDS OF HANDS SANITISED

Thousands of community hands have been sanitised since Sasol introduced production of hand sanitiser in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

To date Sasol has produced and distributed 610 000 litres of hand sanitiser for internal use, contractors, forecourt employees at Sasol Energy’s franchisee owned fuel service stations as well as various communities in South Africa and Mozambique, free of charge.

PRODUCTION

Production is done through KSM Chemical Solutions – a company that participated in Sasol’s Enterprise and Supplier Development’s Business Incubator located in Sasolburg – and in collaboration with Sasol’s own Research and Technology (R&T) pilot plants in Sasolburg and Secunda.

The non-medical hand sanitiser is based on a formulation (composed of active ingredients of 70% Ethanol and 3,5% Isopropanol) which was developed by Sasol Research and Development (R&D) and complies with the World Health Organisation (WHO) specification.

STRATEGIC PARTNERS

350 000 litres were donated to communities in July through our strategic partners AngloGold Ashanti and Sibanye-Stillwater, with Imperial Group taking the lead in distribution.

With a minimum of 3ml required for each proper sanitation of hands, the 350 000 litres equates to over 116 million hand sanitation applications.

The partnership provided protection to frontline medical staff and patients at five major Gauteng state hospitals by providing bulk supplies of non-medical grade hand sanitiser at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic, Charlotte Maxeke Academic, Helen Joseph, Leratong and the Nelson Mandela Childrens’ Hospital.

Our partners’ local communities also benefited as sanitiser was distributed to schools, health facilities and taxi ranks within their South African host and labour communities.

TEAM EFFORT

We donated hand sanitiser to our fence-line communities via Sasol’s Corporate Affairs teams which included Sasol Secunda, Sasolburg, Satellite Operations, Base Chemicals, Exploration & Production International (E&PI) for Mozambique and the Group Social Investment office. Corporate Affairs teams collaborated through Provincial and Local Government Departments of Health, the Department of Education as well as with the Government of Mozambique to ensure that vulnerable communities and front-line health workers were provided with hand sanitiser to minimise the spread of COVID-19 infections and improve the health and safety of communities.

IMPACT

Stories and feedback received from communities and beneficiaries on the impact Sasol’s hand sanitiser have had brings home the realities communities face during the COVID-19 pandemic.  One such touching and heart-warming story comes from Blind SA on receipt of the news that Sasol will support their branches with hand sanitiser. 

‘Blind people also should have access to hands sanitiser and as most of them are vulnerable since they rely on sighted people for assistance.  They can easily be infected if they don’t follow the regulations and therefore the use of hand sanitiser will be of great help to them. Most Blind people are from disadvantaged areas and buying sanitiser from their grant money is a huge challenge since family members depend on their grants. Providing them with hand sanitiser will be of great help and will assist them in complying with the rules and regulations of COVID-19 and will minimise the chances of contracting the virus from other people and they will also be able to sanitise their long walking canes before and after using them.’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Sasol also acknowledges the tremendous support provided by Gift of the Givers in assisting with hand sanitiser distribution to selected organisations and beneficiaries.

Click here to see other ways in which our teams are supporting the fight against COVID-19.

GOING FORWARD

Plans are currently underway to establish a strategic partnership with Transnet. Sasol has issued letters of intent to supply 20 hospitals with 1000 litres of hand sanitiser in the Northern and Eastern Cape.  The Eastern Cape Province is especially hard hit with COVID-19 infections.  The transactions to support these hospitals are currently being finalised.

Sasol continues to explore additional strategic partnerships to further extend the reach of its non-medical grade hand sanitiser during COVID-19.