By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe has revealed that mining industry recorded the lowest number of fatalities in the sector’s history.
The mining sector reported 42 deaths in 2024, a 24% year-on-year decline from the previous year and a record low. The previous record was 49 fatalities in 2022.
The statistics did not include deaths from illegal mining.
Mantashe repeated the government’s position that illegal mining is a criminal activity and not part of his department’s remit.
Last week the bodies of 78 miners were pulled from an illegal gold mine after a heavily-criticised police operation lasting several months that tried to force them to the surface.
Of the deaths captured in last year’s official statistics, 11 were in the gold sector, 19 in platinum, six in coal and six in mines extracting other commodities.
Mantashe told reporters, that the record achievement is the result of a concerted effort by all parties involved in providing and maintaining a safe working environment within the mining industry.
“This collaboration and the implementation of necessary measures on health and safety throughout the year have demonstrated that significant improvements in results can be achieved. We, therefore, commend the collective efforts which have gotten us here and urge all stakeholders to redouble our efforts to reach the goal of zero harm,” he said.
Mantashe noted that the most significant progress so far was in the reduction of fatalities from fall-of-ground (FoG) incidents, machinery and shaft conveyance types of accidents.
FoG categories of accidents reduced by 13%, from 15 in 2023 to 13 in 2024. In the machinery category, a 67% reduction was recorded, from six in 2023 to only two in 2024.
Providently, there were no shaft conveyance-related fatal accidents during 2024, compared with the one significant incident in 2023 that claimed the lives of 13 mineworkers.
“As part of addressing transportation-related accidents in mines, we urge all stakeholders to support and implement collision avoidance systems brought about by the introduction of new regulations on trackless mobile machinery. The current overall improvement in the safety performance of all the commodities in the mining sector is encouraging. However, we must caution the industry that complacency can be dangerous and must, therefore, be avoided at all costs,” Mantashe said.
“Of great concern to us is that most of these injuries are mainly because of repeat accidents, categorised as FoG, transportation, mining, and general types of accidents. We, therefore, urge the employers and labour to be explicit about their respective roles and programmes for the provision and maintenance of a safe working environment that is free of risks,” the Minister said.
Occupational diseases also decreased by 17%, from 2 233 in 2022 to 1 864 cases in 2023. Much of this progress was attributed to the manganese, iron, chrome, coal, diamond, copper, and platinum sectors.
There was a notable decrease in diseases such as silicosis, pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), coal workers’ pneumoconiosis and other diseases.
In 2023, the gold sector reported the highest number of occupational diseases for both silicosis and pulmonary TB cases, whereas the PGM sector reported the highest number of noise-induced hearing loss cases.
Meanwhile after three consecutive months of growth, SA’s mineral output took a turn for the worse in November, decreasing 0.9% year on year, driven mainly by the gold sector.
Production of the precious metal fell 11.5% year on year in November, the steepest decline since June and the 13th straight month of declines after 3.4% drop in October.