Business Report writes that, with fewer employees having died across the country’s mines last year than the year before, Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has shrugged off calls for the government to arrest mine bosses for fatalities
The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) on Friday reported that fatalities had fallen 10% in 2018 to 81, from 90 in 2017 and 73 in 2016. So far this year there have been five fatalities compared with 14 during the same period in 2018. Mantashe said mine fatalities should never be handled with emotions. “If we do that, we will set the industry alight. What is important is that when there are fatalities we must deal with them,” he said, adding that the fatalities had to be analysed and understood. Mantashe went on to point out: “Criminal charges are necessary, but it cannot be a formula for dealing with mine accidents. My own view is that where a manager is negligent, that manager must be charged. It cannot be that every time there is a death there is an arrest. There will be nobody left to run the industry.” Earlier on Friday, Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), called on Mantashe to work with the union in amending the Mine Health and Safety Act. He said: “Every mine that kills a worker - their chief executive must be put behind bars. They must be prosecuted.”
- Read the full original of Dineo Faku’s report on the above at Business Report
- Read too, Mantashe soft on nailing Lily Mine safety failure, on page 3 of City Press Business of 3 March 2019
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