It was a national duty to develop and implement policies and legislation that recognised the value of the lives of each one of the almost 500 000 mineworkers in South Africa, Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said at the 2014 Mine Occupational Health and Safety Summit on Tuesday.

Occupational health and safety in the mining sector, he said, continued to be a major concern and, as such, mitigation measures required a multipronged approach.

A combination of preventive measures, organisational interventions and educational programmes were required to bring about a culture change in the workplace for mineworkers and management alike.

“In supporting the call to zero harm, the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has, in the recent past, conducted both the Presidential and Ministerial Audits at mines to establish [the] compliance levels on challenges caused by silicosis, noise-induced hearing loss, falls of ground and trackless mobile machinery,”  the Minister pointed out.

Consistent with the DMR’s legislative mandate and against the backdrop of a number of challenges facing the sector, all stakeholders were last year engaged on the proposed Mine Health and Safety Bill amendments.

Ramathlodi noted that the DMR had received and considered stakeholder inputs in the draft amendment Bill, including the challenge of protective clothing for women, as there had been a significant increase in the number of women employed in the mining industry over the past 20 years.

Mining, he commented, at both the boardroom and mineworker level, was no longer the domain of men and this had to be reflected in policy and practice.

“The DMR continues to be greatly concerned about the health and safety of female workers in the mining industry, especially the inhumane treatment [of female miners] by fellow workers in some of the underground workplaces,” he stated, adding that such practices did not belong in the South African mining industry and appropriate measures had to be taken to ensure that women worked in a safe and dignified environment.

HEALTH AND SAFETY STATISTICS

Although there had been significant improvements in health and safety in the sector, the Ramatlhodi noted that the loss of life owing to accidents was still a concern, especially in the gold and platinum sectors.

“Rockfall, transport and, most recently, fire-related accidents are still the major cause of death in the sector. Appropriate measures need to be implemented, including the timely adoption of research outcomes, to ensure that all workers return from work unharmed every day,” Mine Health and Safety Council chairperson David Msiza said at the summit.

Although occupational health management systems continued to make an important contribution to the protection of workers from hazards and the elimination of work-related illness, the Minister noted that the number of occupational diseases including silicosis, noise-induced hearing loss and pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) were still excessively high.

South Africa had the third-highest number of cases of TB in the world after India and China and about 1% of the South African population developed TB every year.

“Despite more than a century since modern mining was introduced in South Africa, mineworkers who have been incapacitated by ill health and disability are still sent home with meagre compensation, which results in their continued suffering, leaving their dependants with no hope for the future,” Ramathlodi stated.

He added that the mining sector had to improve the compensation system for workers, who had been incapacitated by illness.

ARTISANAL MINERS

The mining industry was, meanwhile, increasingly faced with the challenge of illegal mining challenges, which negatively impacted on the safety of not only the illegal miners themselves, but also on workers in operational mines.

Ramatlhodi said legislation needed to be strengthened to deal with illegal miners, adding that, under current legislation, artisanal miners were only charged with trespassing.

He noted that a large number of police officers had recently been arrested for participating in illegal mining and aiding illegal miners, stating that combating illegal mining should be an intelligence-driven operation.

He further commented that many abandoned mine shafts were interconnected with operational mines and that illegal miners often went into [operational mines], fighting with legally employed miners and forcing them to collaborate in illegal activities through intimidation and threats.

“The department will continue to collaborate with the relevant law enforcement agencies and social partners to ensure that illegal mining activities are ultimately eradicated,” he said.