Ramaphosa calls for ‘tightening’ of safety laws after latest deaths

Cyril Ramaphosa, president, South Africa

SOUTH African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said the country would “tighten up” safety regulations in order to hold mine management personally accountable for mineworker fatalities, said Reuters in an article republished by BusinessLive.

Citing an interview with eNCA, a broadcaster, Reuters said Ramaphosa was responding to news that six miners had died on the evening of July 15 at the premises of Palabora Copper Company in South Africa’s Limpopo province.

“We are going to tighten up the regulations to ensure that those who run these mines must be accountable themselves because we cannot have so many deaths,” Ramaphosa told eNCA in the interview.

 

Bloomberg News said on July 16 that whilst over the long-term, the safety record on South Africa’s mines had improved, the recent uptick in fatalities in the past two years had thrown the entire viability of the country’s mining sector back into question.

At least 54 mineworkers have lost their lives this year whilst at work. The Palabora fire, which occurred at an underground conveyor, was the second-worst incident this year after seven people died at a gold mine owned by Sibanye-Stillwater when an earth tremor caused a rockfall, the newswire said.

South African mining fatalities increased last year for the first time in a decade and, six and a half months into 2018, the industry is on pace for the most deaths since the 112 reported in 2012, said Bloomberg News in its article.

While the toll is still far below the 553 recorded in 1995, the trend poses questions about the future of mining in South Africa, as workers follow depleting orebodies deeper in a country that’s been mined commercially for over a century, it said.

“We want more accountability …” and other measures in order to improve safety, Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union, told the newswire.

When mines minister, Gwede Mantashe, weighed into the matter on June 14, following news of more fatalities at the West Rand gold mines of Sibanye-Stillwater, he said that it was the “… primary responsibility of every employer to provide a safe working space for employees”. There have been 21 fatalities at Sibanye-Stillwater premises this year of which 19 have been at the gold mines.

Mantashe then referred to employee rights enshrined in the Mine Health and Safety Act saying that the government had a responsibility to enforce the law. Whether this implies government sanction remains unclear. “[T]his right must be enforced,” he said.

Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, declared the loss of life on the firm’s mines this year was unprecedented. “In all my 40 years in mining I have never experienced anything like this. I am traumatised by having lost so many members of the Sibanye family.”