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S.Africa mine death toll hits 201, strike looms
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007
[miningmx.com] -- THE DEATH toll on South Africa’s mines has surpassed the 199 recorded in 2006 as members of the country’s largest mineworkers’ union prepare to down tools on Tuesday to protest against poor safety conditions, bringing production to a halt.
Trade union Solidarity pointed out a spate of deaths reported over the weekend by Gold Fields, Xstrata and Anglo Platinum had pushed the toll to 201.
This is despite a commitment from the mining houses in 2003 it would lower the fatality rate at their operations by 20% a year to pull the industry into line with its Australian and North American peers by 2013.
After a good start, the industry failed to make an improvement in 2006 on the previous year’s statistics and it has in fact lost ground over the last year, prompting the government to take an increasingly tougher stance on the matter.
The 240,000-strong
National Union of Mineworkers is calling its members out on a protected strike on Tuesday to protest against the death toll. The strike is expected to bring the mining industry to a stop.
The NUM said more than 60 companies in gold, platinum and coal would be affected.
The Chief Inspector of Mines, Tabo Gazi, has outlined how an audit into the mining industry’s safety standards ordered by
President Thabo Mbeki, will unfold.
There will be a legal and technical audit carried out by the 146-member inspectorate into some 2,800 operational mines.
The inspectorate will contract the services of professionals to assist them in the technical audit. Gazi has said his office does have a shortage of skilled people.
“Mine safety is currently under a cloud, and the audit can assist in improving the situation,” said Solidarity spokesman Reint Dykema.
The Kloof mine operated by Gold Fields, where the worker was killed at the weekend, is operating normally, said spokesman Andrew Davidson. “An inspection is taking place where the accident happened,” he said.
South Africa has the world’s deepest gold mines and seismicity and rockfalls are a major killer underground. Concerns have been raised that the relatively shallow platinum mines will increasingly confront similar issues as they exploit deeper ore bodies.
Solidarity raised
the prospect of the death rising higher yet in the run up to the year end, a time when productivity drops off due to the holiday period.
“Miners are heading for a fraught period. They are under tremendous pressure to work overtime and on weekends in order to compensate for the Christmas break. In addition, workplaces that had been left idle over the holidays are more dangerous when work is resumed,” Dykema said.
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