President Thabo Mbeki ordered a safety review on Friday of all South Africa’s mines after a successful operation to rescue thousands of workers who were trapped underground.
A statement from his office said Mbeki had called on Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to conduct an across-the-board audit following the accident at a gold mine near Johannesburg on Wednesday, which left 3 200 miners stuck 2km below the surface for up to a day-and-half.
“President Mbeki said that the collective effort demonstrated in the rescue effort is testimony to a true South African spirit,” the statement read.
“Furthermore, the president has asked the minister to conduct an audit of all the mines to determine whether they meet health and safety standards as prescribed in law.”
Although no one was killed or seriously injured in the incident at the Erlandsrand Mine, reports say an average of 18 miners die a month.
South Africa’s mining industry is one of the main drivers of the continent’s largest economy. As well as gold, the country has significant reserves of platinum, coal and diamonds.
The government has not put a timeline on the review. While the Department of Minerals and Energy was unable to five an exact figure on the number of mines, there are believed to be several hundred dotted across the country.
Unions have said the trapping of the miners at Erlandsrand, which came after a lift cable snapped, should act as a wake-up call to the industry.
National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Peter Bailey said the legislation to enforce safety rules was in place but some companies had failed to make it a priority, as any fines they incurred for breaches were relatively painless.
“The problem is that the captains of industry are not taking health and safety seriously. They must change strategy and put health and safety at the centre of their corporate objective,” Bailey said.
While welcoming the prospect of a comprehensive review, Bailey said the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development lacked the capacity to pursue charges of negligence, even if the Department of Minerals and Energy had recommended prosecution.
“If you don’t prosecute people, they naturally become lax and say ‘well, nothing happens to us so why should we worry ourselves’.
“The fines are so little — they can make it back it less than 10 minutes of production … We’ve got to make it expensive for the industry to be negligent. They must say: ‘We can’t afford this’.”
The country’s Chamber of Mines acknowledged the industry’s safety record was less than exemplary.
“We have seen good improvements in 2005 but no improvement in 2006 and in 2007; there is a reduction of our performance,” the chamber’s safety and sustainable development adviser Sietse Van der Woude said.
While there was no single reason for the problems, he said “there is certainly a problem of high turnover,” leading to an inexperienced workforce.
An editorial in Business Day said that while mines were a naturally dangerous environment, “far more fatalities seem to be the result of stupid accidents, whether the fault of workers themselves or of management.
“There is clearly a problem, one that mining companies, mineworkers and the government must tackle together … The industry must take action against accidents anyway: it mustn’t wait for tougher laws.”
‘It could have been prevented’
Meanwhile, Sonjica on Friday said that South Africa lacks the capacity to monitor and implement mining safety legislation.
Speaking at a press conference held on the sides of the Mine Health and Safety Council’s (MHSC’s) fifth biennial summit, Sonjica said while the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1996 was a progressive piece of legislation, the lack of capacity within the judicial system and the country’s skills shortage are hampering enforcement of the Act.
The Act makes provision for the prosecution of mine management and the permanent closure of mines where the safety of mineworkers is threatened.
While the minister has exercised her right to temporarily shut down mines after mining accidents, the Department of Minerals and Energy’s ability to call the industry to account is severely limited.
MHSC acting general manager Mthokozisi Zondi said while the state conducts investigations immediately following accidents, that is where it stops.
“In respect of prosecutions, we have tried to hand over cases to the justice system, but South Africa’s justice system is hamstrung by backlogs,” said Zondi.
He said the legislation allows for the issuing of fines but these are to a maximum of R200 000, which are small for multibillion-rand-earning commodities producers.
“The legislation is progressive, but the challenge is in its implementation. If laws are not enforced, they mean nothing,” said Zondi.
But, Sonjica says, she was thinking of amending the legislation to include a tribunal, which could handle these cases.
“We could look at linking it to the justice system,” said Sonjica, adding that the Department of Minerals and Energy may get more involved in the monitoring of maintenance at mines.
“If anything, maintenance — in terms of reducing the risk of fatalities — is a low-hanging fruit,” she said.
Referring to the mine accident that occurred at Harmony Gold this week, she said it was her suspicion that maintenance at the mine was not up to scratch.
“At worst we could have lost more than 3 000 lives simply because the only means of transporting workers from underground to the surface may not have been maintained properly,” Sonjica said.
“It is unacceptable because it could have been prevented,” she said. — AFP, I-Net Bridge