"The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act of 1993 is to be substantially revamped to be brought in line with the superior Mine Health and Safety Act (MHS) and, following this, the acts will be merged.

The Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) inspectorate will also be merged with the Department of Labour (DoL) inspectorate, creating a single statutory body for health and safety in the country.

The Department of Labour (DoL) currently administers all aspects of health and safety in all workplaces, except mines.

There is a conundrum of departments including the DoL, DME, Department of Health, Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and the Department of Transport which are responsible for aspects of occupational heath and safety.

The present situation is not conducive to the effective administration of health and safety.

Cabinet's decision to consolidate and integrate the disparate competences will go a long way to leverage government's limited resources efficiently and ensure an all-inclusive occupational health and safety service is administered.

Generic principles that have been adopted and implemented in the Mine Health and Safety Act will be adapted to improve legislation pertaining to health and safety in all workplaces.

Self- or co-regulation, in particular, is an important underlying principle that will be ingrained into occupational health and safety legislation.

The provision places collective responsibility on the employer and the employee for workplace health and safety.

Government is trying to become less prescriptive and interventionist through introducing these measures; however it needs to improve and update its health and safety regulations for this strategy to succeed.

However advanced the country's legislation and regulation may be, the voluntary compliance of industry cannot be relied upon.

While the DoL inspectorate accepts that its enforcement capacity is not what it should be, it points to contributing factors outside the department's control that have aggravated its recent poor health and safety prosecution performance.

For enforcement to be effective, visible prosecution as well as a degree of relevant sanction must be imposed on offenders.

The office of the public prosecutor is responsible for the final sanction in occupational health and safety cases and not the DoL.

Changes and challenges within the justice system have resulted in delays in finalising, while the criminality of occupational health and safety accidents is diminished when measured against violent crime, such as murder or rape and, therefore, comparatively lenient sanctions are often handed down. This weak link in the chain of enforcement is being strengthened by the two-way transfer of skills and information between the departments.

The DoL is embarking upon an awareness campaign that will see it expand its traditional 'health and safety police' role to include a co-enforcement strategy.

A concerning lack of statistics has also been noted and an update on the Benjamin and Greef report of 1997 will be initiated.

The report identified various health and safety problems and has informed the cabinet decision to integrate OHS competences.

Six to seven thousand health and safety incidents are reported in South Africa each year, 10% of which are fatal.

These figures have remained relatively stable, although under-reporting of incidents in South Africa is thought to be extensive.

This reflects a lack of commitment in industry that needs to be confronted."