21 November, 2011
ICEM and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) President Senzeni Zokwana said the drive for profit by mining companies operating in South Africa was undercutting safety, and corporate executives must prioritize their values in order to save lives.
Zokwana was speaking last week at the Mine Heath and Safety Council Summit, a tripartite forum set up in 2008 to address the mounting deaths and diseases inside South Africa’s mining industry. And despite the conference’s theme, “Zero Harm,” it was obvious from the facts, figures and rhetoric presented at the conference that South Africa’s mine safety culture is nowhere near zero levels.
“The continuation of people dying in the industry is unacceptable,” said Zokwana. “Unless the CEOs take (the deaths and injuries) as seriously as they do to meet financial targets, we’ll always have problems.”
Zokwana also addressed the NUM’s habit of taking a day of mourning at a mine site when a fatality occurs. “Some companies view the mourning of death by their employers as a strike. But we need a more caring industry,” he said.
Zokwana was one of a handful of trade union leaders and government officials who called production bonuses rather than higher monthly salaries as a leading cause of safety lapses. The Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu, said there were “unintended consequences created by the current bonus incentive scheme. It is time that this industry stops mindless risk-taking. I challenge the employer and employee to really address this matter because it does contribute to fatalities.”
Shabangu was also critical of industry for its profit-making, while ignoring the inherent danger of South African mining where mines are some of the deepest in the world and where rock slides –particularly in gold and platinum extraction – account for 40% of all fatalities.
“I do not understand how mining companies that make billions in profit fail even to buy the latest available and proven ground monitoring and detection equipment,” she said. “These can cut down the number of potential fatalities considering the fact that the equipment is widely available and has been used by the civil engineering industry for a number of years.”
Shabangu promised that her ministry would increase the number of safety audits through the rest of 2011 and into 2012, and stern action would be taken against companies that do not comply with established standards. The safety council summit, a by-product of the Mine Health and Safety Council that was a statutory requirement from South Africa’s 1996 Mine Health and Safety Act, was held on 17-18 November at Kempton Park outside of Johannesburg.
Through the first ten months of 2011, 116 registered mine fatalities have occurred in the South African industry. That compares with 168 official deaths in 2009 and 127 in 2010, but the unofficial rate is certain to be much higher.
In the days just preceding the summit, four miners were killed in industrial accidents: an engineering contract worker at Eastern Platinum’s Crocodile River mine near Brits in North West Province; a Harmony Gold employee at the Kusasaletha mine near Carltonville, western Gauteng province; a miner employed by First Uranium at the Ezulwini mine in Westonaria, Gauteng province; and a miner working at the Consolidated Murchison gold mine near Gravelotte, Limpopo province.