Mining Weekly reports that the Minerals Council SA (MCSA – previously called the Chamber of Mines) says the SA mining industry is making strides in improving its health and safety performance, but more needed to be done on site, as well as off-site, to keep employees safe.
The council confirmed during the 2020 Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, this week, that the fatality rate in the mining industry in 2019 had reached the lowest in recorded history. It pointed out that mining deaths in 2019 had decreased by 92% since 1993, while the number of injuries had dropped by 72% over the same period. MCSA CEO Roger Baxter said he was very pleased with the declining rate of fatalities. It was in line with the council's new strategy, Khumbul’ekhaya, meaning ‘remember home’ – so named as the industry recognised that fatalities had the greatest impact on loved ones at home. On the back of a tough year in 2018, when 81 people in the industry died, the MCSA got 34 CEOs from mining companies together in January 2019. This culminated in the CEO-led strategy on health and safety. Meanwhile, tuberculosis (TB) prevalence in the mining sector was now below the national average as the result of a target set five years ago. The incidence of TB has decreased by 63% since 2008, while silicosis incidence has dropped by 56% over that period. Many of the gains have been recent. While statistics for 2019 have not been reported yet, there were sharp drops between 2017 and 2018, with silicosis decreasing by 29% during that time, and TB decreasing by 24%.
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