8 May 2008
editorial
Johannesburg — THE deaths of nine workers at Gold Fields' South Deep mine on Workers Day last week have brought the issue of mine safety to the fore yet again.
Not that mine safety has been out of the headlines for long. Last year ended with mineworkers' trade unions going on a national strike over safety, a protest that came after some high-profile accidents that saw the number of fatalities reach 220 for the year, up from 201 in the previous year. And it's not just the unions that have made a big issue of safety lately. Mining house bosses such as Anglo's Cynthia Carroll have done so too, as has Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.
And official statistics earlier this year indicated some progress had been made: in the 12 months to February, the fatality rate fell to 0,19 per million hours worked, from 0,20 in the previous 12 months, and to 0,41 per 1000 persons at work, from 0,44.
But last week's South Deep accident, which happened when a lift cable snapped, has generated particularly strong protests. As it happened, eight of the workers who were killed when the lift crashed down the shaft were employees of subcontractor Murray & Roberts. But this brought to 14 the number of deaths at Gold Fields' mines last week. T he fact that this time it was a cable that caused it, and not a rock fall or some random event, made it all the worse.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) lambasted Gold Fields, accusing it of negligence. So too, unusually, did Sonjica, who has in the past been careful to listen to all sides before pronouncing. "I am deeply concerned and very angry at what has happened here. I see it as gross negligence ... which can only be due to a lack of maintenance," she was reported as saying at a May Day press conference at the mine.
It's not clear whether the minister knows something or was simply angry and upset and responding to pressure for more action on safety. She has surely been stung by suggestions by the NUM that there might have been collusion between mine safety inspectors and Gold Fields.
Sonjica has promised to beef up mine safety and impose more stringent penalties for noncompliance and negligence. Also expected later this month are the results of a safety audit of all SA's mines that was ordered by President Thabo Mbeki after 3200 mineworkers were trapped underground at Harmony Gold's Elandsrand mine last year.
But we don't know what really happened at South Deep, and we won't know for some time. An investigation is under way. It is surely premature to speculate about the findings.
In that sense, the anger and accusations, may not have been particularly helpful. Effective mine safety requires strong partnerships between the mining companies, trade unions and the government. Mine managers can't do it alone.
That's especially so given that South African gold mining is going ever deeper and becoming ever more risky because of the age and nature of the ore bodies. South Deep itself is a new mine that is still in development and has a rather fraught history: production was delayed for months in 2006 first by a shaft accident and then by a bad fire. All that was before Gold Fields took over. But this mine, clearly, is a problem and the investigation may show why.
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