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Mines urged to prioritise safety

7th May 2018

By: Marleny Arnoldi

Deputy Editor Online

     

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining companies should regularly scrutinise their health and safety systems to ensure these comply with the Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA), law firm Webber Wentzel health and safety practice partner Kenneth Coster advises.

Following the seismic event that claimed the lives of seven employees at miner Sibanye-Stillwater’s Driefontein mine, in Gauteng, last week, he believes a large company such as Sibanye, which has been operating for many years, has been complying with the MHSA as far as is reasonably practical.

The accident in question involved seismicity, which could be triggered by various factors, including natural phenomena.

“Mining houses like Sibanye have invested huge amounts of money in relation to the appropriate technology to ensure that they can – as far as reasonably practical – determine any sort of movement in relation to rocks and strata,” Coster states.

He explains that there are various aspects that need to be taken into account when a mine suspects or detects possible seismic activity.

“I have no doubt that Sibanye will have a shaft clearance procedure, as well as emergency preparedness, coupled with a response procedure, which would have been adhered to, otherwise this incident might have had a much larger impact than it did.”

It is core to the MHSA that the employees, the health and safety representatives, and organised labour are fully aware of what is called Sections 22 and 23 of the MHSA, which states that you have to look after your own health and safety, as well as the safety of others; Section 23 states that employees have the right to leave a dangerous working place.

Therefore, it is not just the decision of one person to evacuate or to clear a shaft after an incident such as the Sibanye seismic event.

“A seismic event is complicated and does not discriminate – it could happen anywhere. Mines try and comply as far as reasonably practical and they have mine plans in place for the risk of seismicity,” Coster affirms.

In terms of the investigation into the Sibanye incident, Coster points out that both Sibanye and the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) will follow rigorous processes to determine what went wrong.

During the investigation, the DMR and the inspectorate will look at documentation that has been completed by the employer and hear from the various relevant parties that were involved at the scene of the incident.

The possible outcomes could be fines that are levied against the employer and/or specific individuals. The fines could be administrative for noncompliance with the MHSA.

However, should anyone be found to have been negligent, it is possible for a recommendation to be made that a specific individual or set of individuals be prosecuted.

This could result in fines of up to R1-million or five years’ imprisonment in relation to a specific individual, or a company found to be noncompliant to the MHSA could be liable for a R1-million administration of noncompliance fine.

There is also a possibility of an individual being tried for culpable homicide, where somebody is responsible for the unintentional death of another human being.

“People are often out for blood, because there is huge trauma, but one must look at the facts. If the facts are such that, despite taking all these safety precautions, the accident was not foreseeable, then there should be no sanction,” Coster concludes.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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