Modern Mining October 2021

HEALTH AND SAFETY

The quest for zero harm in SA’s mining industry The Minerals Council South Africa, in conjunction with mining companies, aims to achieve world-class safety performance by working in close collaboration with tripartite partners in government and organised labour. This feature discusses some of the initiatives, challenges and achievements on the road to zero harm in mining. By Mark Botha .

A ddressing the initiatives by the Minerals Council South Africa and industry to improve the safety performance of the South African mining industry, Dr Sizwe Phakathi, head: Safety and Sustainable Development at the Mineral Council, says that in the past 27 years, the industry tripartite stakeholders have cooperated to reduce the number of fatalities from 615 in 1993 to 51 in 2019, the latter being a record-low, earning the industry high praise from Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe. “Regrettably,” says Phakathi, “the mining indus- try recorded 60 fatalities in 2020, which was an increase of nine deaths over the 2019 safety perfor- mance.” He notes that the number of injuries has also been declining over the 27 years since the dawn of democracy in South Africa (see Figs. 1 and 2). “The Minerals Council and our member com- panies are committed to the industry goal of zero harm and achievement of the tripartite milestones on occupational health and safety,” he says.

The health and safety milestones agreed on at the biennial OHS Summits by stakeholders from government, business and organised labour have contributed to the improvement of the industry’s safety performance.

Dr Sizwe Phakathi, head: Safety and Sustainable Development at the Mineral Council South Africa.

20  MODERN MINING  October 2021