No reason to cheer fall in fatalities

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane announced with much fanfare last week that mine deaths declined for a ninth year in a row to a record low in 2016, thanks to the government’s efforts to improve mine safety.

Zwane said there were 73 deaths on the mines in 2016, down from 77 in 2015. His figures excluded the three Lily Mine workers whose bodies remain trapped underground.

But a closer analysis of the data show that while the absolute number of deaths has fallen, the fatality rate per hours worked has stagnated in recent years.

The fatality rate was 0.08 per million hours worked in both 2014 and in 2015, according to data from the Chamber of Mines. This is the key indicator of mine safety because it strips out the effects of employees who are on leave, according to its head of safety and sustainable development, Sizwe Phakathi.

It also strips out the effects of strikes and takes into account the size of the sector, which has shed more than 60,000 jobs since 2012, according to the chamber.

“We need a step change. We are stagnating,” said Phakathi.

A simple calculation of the death rate per employee also shows a flattening out: it fell from 18.24 per 100,000 in 2013, to 16.95 per 100,000 in 2014, and to 16.67 per 100,000 in 2015. Figures for the total number of employees in the mining sector are not yet available for the end of 2016, but if the same calculation is run on the published figures for the third quarter, the death rate per 100,000 employees stood at either 16.54 or 15.89, depending on whether the three trapped workers from Lily Mine are included or not.

Solidarity’s deputy general secretary for health and safety, Paul Mardon, said the figures provided by Zwane last week were nothing to celebrate.

“There has been no real improvement in mine safety, and the 73 figure in my mind should be 76,” he said.

While many of the mines that were members of the Chamber of Mines had improved occupational health and safety on the mines, problems remained, particularly among smaller mines.

“There’s no cohesion and no shared sense of responsibility or accountability for occupational health and safety,” he said.

John Capel, executive director of the Bench Marks Foundation, said mine safety was compromised by poorly trained workers sourced from labour brokers, the use of productivity rather than safety targets and high levels of illiteracy among miners and the fact that occupational health and safety training was often conducted at the end of a shift when workers were exhausted.

“The announcement by the mineral resources minister last week that the number of mine fatalities decreased in 2016 compared to 2015 is a classic illustration of the well-known dictum that there are lies, damned lies and statistics. The benchmark for mine fatalities should be zero.”

The Department of Mineral Resources had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

THERE’S NO COHESION, AND NO SHARED SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY OR ACCOUNTABILITY FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY