SA's mine death tally in an upward tick
December 4, 2007
By Justin Brown
Johannesburg - The four-year improvement in safety at South African mines came to an end yesterday when the number of mine deaths reached 202 so far this year.
The deaths climbed to 290 in 2002 before falling in the next four years to 199 last year.
The increase in the number of deaths to more than 200 came a day before the one-day strike by 240 000 National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members today, aimed at highlighting poor mine safety.
Thabo Gazi, the chief inspector of mines, said the most recent death had taken place at Harmony Gold's Bambanani mine in the Free State.
The spokesperson for the company, Amelia Soares, said the Bambanani worker had been involved in an accident last week. He died at the weekend after being discharged from hospital.
Also at the weekend, a mine worker died at Anglo Platinum's Rustenburg mine in the North West. Also at Xstrata's Rhovan vanadium plant near Rustenburg, a miner was killed, bringing mine deaths to four at the group this year from zero last year.
Another miner died at the weekend at Gold Fields' Kloof mine near Carletonville, raising the number of fatalities to 36 at the group's mines.
Fifteen of these fatalities took place at Kloof.
The national safety audit of 700 mines is expected to start this month.
Gazi said: ''The deterioration in safety came on the back of the growth in the mining industry and at the time of high commodity prices, which had caused skills shortages especially at the supervisory level, and movement of staff from gold mining to platinum mining.''
Frans Baleni, the NUM general secretary, said the deterioration in safety this year was due to companies pushing production at a time of record commodity prices especially gold and platinum, worker fatigue as a result of a 24 hours a day and seven days a week operations, and mining methods, which used rocks as pillars for support.
He said the union would stage marches today in Johannesburg as well as in Springbok, Rustenburg, Klerksdorp, Welkom, Vryheid and Polokwane to highlight poor safety standards in mines.
Sietse van der Woude, the Chamber of Mines safety adviser, said there had been no proper analysis of this year's safety figures. ''If the best practice in every commodity in mining had been implemented by last year, there would have been 39 fewer mines deaths,'' he said.
|
|
