Business Report writes that Harmony Gold Mining Company's struggle to eliminate fatalities during the year to the end of June came under the spotlight at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) held on Friday.  

Shareholder activist Theo Botha took the company's executives to task, charging that they had failed 37,000 employees, as workers continued to die on duty.  “In the last 10 years, Harmony has lost 127 employees and an average of 12 fatalities a year.  This year, we have had 11 fatalities.  Surely you must acknowledge the fact that the company has failed to protect the workers in terms of safety,” said Botha.  He also charged that the company's social and ethics committee had failed to meet to hold management accountable.  Harmony CE Peter Steenkamp said the company was saddened by the fatalities, which continued despite efforts by the group to curb the loss of life.  “We launched a programme to address fatalities three years ago, and we have done a lot of work in this regard.  It is a real disappointment, and we are committed to addressing these issues.”  He noted that that the programme was a five-year process and remarked further as follows:  “We have the buy-in from all our employees for the programme, and we believe that we are on the right track.  We are in a deep level mining environment, but that should not deter us from eliminating fatalities.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Dineo Faku at Business Report

Read too, Harmony Gold’s safety record criticised at annual meeting, at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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