Sasol evacuates South African employees from Mozambique on unrest

LONDON (ICIS)–Sasol is in the process of evacuating all South African employees from its operations in Mozambique due to unrest in the area, the chemicals producer said on Friday, following incidents of violence against Mozambicans and other foreign nationals in South Africa.

Although operations at the South Africa-headquartered company’s central processing facility in Temane and its gas-fired power plant in Ressano Garcia, both in Mozambique are running as normal, on-site projects work in the country has been halted for the time being.

“Mozambican employees of our service providers have expressed concern around the reported incidents of violence against Mozambicans and other foreign nationals in South Africa and are also protesting about the presence of South African employees of our service providers working on the project,” said a SASOL spokesman.

Widespread violence has broken out against Mozambicans and other foreign nationals working in South Africa over the last few weeks, along with attacks and looting of foreign-owned businesses, leading the South African government to publicly denounce the anti-immigration clashes earlier this week.

“We have had no cases of violence at our sites and the situation remains calm,” the Sasol spokesman added.