Keynote address at the 5th Mine Health and Safety Council Summit by Buyelwa Sonjica

Programme Director
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Members
Director General of Minerals and Energy
Leaders of employee and employer organisations
Management and Executives of private and public institutions
Members of tripartite structures
Members of the press
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this, the 5th Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) Tripartite Summit, this year also marks the 10th year of the enactment of the Mine Health and Safety Act, Act 29 of 1996 (MHSA).

The theme of this summit is 'Working together towards zero harm,' and it is apt as is embodies the spirit of tripartism on which the MHSA is based. The health and safety of our mineworkers is a collective effort of all the stakeholders i.e. the state, employers and employees, although the primary responsibility of ensuring healthy and safe working environments remains the obligation of the employer.

Despite the many strides in regulatory reform that has been made with the promulgation of the Mine Health and Safety Act and the development of outcomes based regulations, we are still dealing with some of the legacies of South Africa's past. The impact of many discriminatory practices which were allowed by the legislation such as disproportionate compensation payouts and benefits to black and white miners, inferior housing poor working conditions and a general neglect of health and safety are still evident.

As most of us here today will remember from the Gala dinner last night that we celebrated the health and safety achievements of certain mines, we would have also realised that their dedication and efforts to ensure the health and safety of their employees was done over an extended period of time. Let us briefly review the long path that got us here today.

The Leon Commission of Inquiry of 1994 is the most recent commission to examine occupational health and safety in the South African mining industry. The Commission found that over 69 000 mineworkers had died in the period between 1900 and 1994, and more than a million were seriously injured. In terms of occupational health the Commission found:

* Tuberculosis rates of 58 per thousand after 15 years of exposure,
* shaft sinkers and stopers working 8 000 shifts have more than 30% probability of developing silicosis,
* 50 to 60% of coal miners developed coal miner's pneumoconiosis after 40 years of exposure,
* 40 to 80% of workers involved in drilling operations have hearing problems after 10 years of exposure.

The main focus of occupational health activity on the mines prior to the Leon Commission was on compensation for disease rather than prevention. The applicable mining law, namely the Minerals Act focused predominantly on the safety issues in the mining industry with no specific provisions for promoting occupational health.

Also, an interestingly enough, the Minister of Minerals and Energy in 1995, Pik Botha, delivered an address to the Association of Mine Managers of South Africa's Think safe Seminar on the Human Factor in Safety, I would like to re-iterate some of his observations as they do have a bearing on our deliberations today.

Minister Botha commented on the findings of the Leon Commission as follows: "The Leon Commission observes that from the turn of the century to 1993 - an average of 742 miners were killed per year. Over a million were seriously injured, equal to an average of almost 11 000 annually. Despite all that has been done in the realm of safety, the annual death rate has only dropped to 680 per year over the last decade (1985 to 1995), a reduction of just over 8%. Since we currently produce about 600 tons of gold per year, this means that each ton of gold produced in South Africa costs an average of more or less one human life and 12 seriously injured miners." Also worthy of note was the comment on the common excuse that employees are generally responsible for accidents.

"The Commission refers to the tendency of many senior mining officials to attribute South Africa's poor mine safety record to physical and human factors beyond the industry's control. The recurring management apology," it says, "when paraphrased, claims that the systems in place are fine and the accidents are due to human errors".

This is an accusation which the Commission directs inter alia against yourselves (referring to the mine managers) and is therefore one which we should take seriously. It is a given that, as the Commission puts it, "the general level of education is dismayingly low". The question is: what do we do about it? The answer would seem to be to offer stepped-up adult educational courses and training beyond the mere needs of functioning in a mine. This was the past we have come from where unfortunately employees were generally blamed for mine accidents and production could be measured in lives per ton mined?

These deficiencies as highlighted by the Leon Commission provided the impetus for the following recommendations:

* drafting of a new Mine Health and Safety Act to provide the comprehensive legal framework for creating a health and safe working environment,
* restructuring of the enforcement agency,
* promulgating of regulations and protective measures to protect the health and safety of workers including occupational hygiene, medical surveillance, rockfall and rockburst and programmes with specific reference to tuberculosis,
* restructuring of research institutions and health information systems,
* ensuring appropriate training and certification of all workers in the industry.

The Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA) came into effect on 15 January 1997 replacing the Minerals Act 50 of 1991 as the legal basis for regulating occupational health and safety in the South African mines. The MHSA was enacted after extensive tri-partite consultation process involving representatives of government, employers and employee unions. As a result of the high level of participation in it's drafting, the Act enjoys substantial legitimacy among employers and workers in the industry and is consistent with ILO standards. The MHSA established a number of tri-partite institutions for ongoing consultation between the employers, employees and the government. The Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) was established to advise the Minister of Minerals and Energy on all aspects of safety and health in the mines. The Mine Qualifications Authority (MQA) sets educational and training standards and qualifications for the mining industry as part of the framework established by the South African Qualifications Act.

The event we are participating in today is mandated by section 43(e) of the Mine Health and Safety Act (1996) which requires that the Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) hold a biennial summit 'to review the state of health and safety at mines.' This review of the health and safety performance of the mining industry and also their achievements towards the milestones set at the MHSC Summit of 2003 will be done by the chairperson of the MHSC, Thabo Gazi.

As per the programme for the day, after the chairperson has done the review of the industry performance, the principals from the tripartite stakeholders will have an opportunity to comment on the performance and trends indicated during their leadership dialogue session. Apart from the leadership dialogue, every participant here today will have the opportunity to provide input into the discussions and resolutions that are taken through your active participation in the round table discussion sessions. I urge you to make full use of this session to make your voice heard, complaints and compliments are also welcome.

Before I close, I would like to share some my concerns and present some of my challenges to the MHSC:

* I am concerned that after 10 years of the MHSA there still seems to be different interpretations of what constitutes a risk assessment, this is often evidenced through generic codes of practice that span an entire mining group rather than being specific to a mine or working place
* we are also finding that in some cases risk assessments are done with a pre-determined outcome e.g. when costly control measures would be required, risk assessments are tailored to show that such measures are not required
* I am concerned about the shortage of skills in all disciplines required to ensure the health and safety of our mine workers
* despite the Mini-Indaba on Seismicity and rockburst being held on 7 of September 2007, I am concerned that we are still continuing to have accidents through this agency that claims the lives or our miners, the 4 fatalities at the Mponeng mine of 28 of September 2007 re-iterates my need for urgent action
* I would like to challenge the mining industry to ensure that relevant research results from Safety In Mines Research Advisory Committee (Simrac) other local or international research agencies and outcomes of investigations and inquiries are assessed and implemented without delay to ensure that the mineworkers reap the benefit of a healthier and safer working environment
* the outcomes of the Mini-Indaba on Seismicity and Rockbursts held on 7 September 2007 and the challenges presented there by myself are actioned without delay
* the issue of HIV and AIDS presents one of the greatest health challenges to the mining industry in South Africa. Combined exposures to occupational health hazards such as silica bearing dust, HIV and TB hasten the onset of disease and increase the level of risk associated with each individual hazard. The Occupational Health of mineworkers has sadly been neglected in the past, my previous comments refer to this, and due to the long latency periods before diseases manifest themselves, I would like to see focussed long term research programmes being developed, conducted and the results thereof being supplied to the MHSC and the Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate for inclusion into the policy development programme e.g. as minimum standards
* all health and safety research must become gender sensitive, as time progresses more and more women will join the mining industry from the boardroom to the rock face, we must ensure that our workplaces are engineered to cater for women
* I would, finally, like to challenge the tripartite stakeholders to do whatever is necessary to ensure that the milestones we have voluntarily set for ourselves is achieved within our time frames – failure is not an option!

As I thank you for your participation today and wish you well on your deliberations, I also leave you with the challenges and some of my concerns, may it form an integral part of your discussions.

Issued by: Department of Minerals and Energy
5 October 2007