Unilever : Maintaining morale and smooth operations at Boksburg factory

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South Africa has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The first cases arrived in the country in March 2020. Zenzele Sangweni, Factory Director at Unilever's Boksburg manufacturing site in South Africa, recalls the early days of Covid.

'We got information that the Covid-19 virus was in South Africa,' he says. Then, just before the Easter break, Unilever had its first case of Covid in South Africa when an employee fell ill and had to be taken to an intensive care unit. The Boksburg area, which lies close to the international airport in Johannesburg, was deemed a Covid hotspot and anxieties began to build up. By Easter, several more positive cases had emerged at the factory.

'There was a lot of fear - you could actually feel the tension,' says Zenzele. 'But there was a stigma around Covid. My team did not want to talk about it.' A culture of concealment, however, could only make matters worse.

Zenzele had two clear tasks ahead of him. One was to introduce openness and transparency around the new virus. The other was to put in place firm transmission-prevention measures.