SA’s mining industry recorded fewer deaths in the first nine months of 2019, the lowest rate since the industry began tracking its safety performance 100 years ago.
As at September 23, the number of fatalities was 35, signalling a significant improvement on 2018 when there were 71 deaths in the comparative period. This followed an even more dismal period in 2017 when the industry death toll jumped for the first time since 2009, with 88 deaths recorded for the full year.
David Msiza, the department of mineral resources and energy’s chief inspector of mines, said if health and safety performance continues on the same trajectory for the next three months, it will be the safest year yet for the industry.
Themba Mkhwanazi, CEO of Kumba Iron Ore and the chair of the Minerals Council SA’s CEO Zero Harm Forum, said while there was a significant improvement in the period, “it is still 35 lives too many. We will not rest until we get to zero.”
Mkhwanazi spoke at the launch of the forum’s new CEO-led health and safety strategy, Khumbul’ekhaya, on Tuesday.
The strategy has the following main drivers:
- A continued commitment to zero harm.
- A two-year focus on eliminating fatalities related to safety and health incidents.
- Adopting a holistic approach in which it is recognised that fatalities are usually the result of a complex set of circumstances.
- Learning from incidents in mining and other industries.
As the industry continues to work towards zero harm, Minerals Council CEO Roger Baxter said the mining sector has made significant strides in the past 25 years in reducing the number of fatalities from 615 in 1993 to 81 in 2018.
Though deep-level gold mining has shed a number of jobs over this period, performance rates over the same period improved 84% as measured by the fatality injury frequency rate, which declined from 0.5 per million person hours worked to 0.08.
To ensure every miner returns home each day unharmed is the collective priority of companies, labour and government, Baxter said.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union’s national health and safety officer, Matthew Grant, commended the industry’s strides in improving health and safety, and welcomed the new strategy.
“The actual litmus test is if it is felt underground,” Grant said. “So we have to wait and see.”
Mkhwanazi said the right technologies and systems paired with heartfelt leadership could one day see SA mining become fatality-free.
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