Be safe or go to jail - The Times
Kea’ Modimoeng

New laws hold mining bosses criminally liable if guilty of unsafe mining

A NEW law that can make mining bosses criminally liable for any of their workers’ deaths has been cheered by unions, but slammed by industry executives.

The new mine safety laws are contained in the Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act, which was approved by Parliament last week but must still be signed into law by President Kgalema Motlanthe in the next seven days.

The Act makes for stricter penalties and stipulates that investigations into mine accidents must be held within 10 days and that a report be completed within 30 days.

Speaking at the Chamber of Mines’ 118th annual meeting earlier this month, chamber president Sipho Nkosi described the legislation as an “imposition of a liability of a most oppressive nature”.

The new laws make provision for heavier penalties for mining companies, increasing fines from R200 000 to R1-million.

“An extremely damaging consequence of these Draconian proposals — should they be implemented — is that the South African mining industry will lose the services of a considerable number of highly skilled managerial and supervisory employees,” said Nkosi.

He pointed out that the reality is that mining often takes place in a hostile and dangerous environment.

“This is particularly true in our country, which has the world’s deepest underground operations.”

“Many will choose to export their skills to somewhere else in the world where they are not faced with the threat of imprisonment and inflationary fines for events over which they have no realistic control,” Nkosi said.

According to Frans Baleni, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a chief executive can be charged with industrial culpable homicide if he or she or the mine manager is found guilty of causing an unsafe working environment.

NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said: “We are excited that we can now see a chief executive of a mine going to rot in jail for unsafe mining.

“We will definitely see an end to a monopoly over lives, because in the past it used to seem as if workers didn’t have the right to live.

“Now all those who force workers to work under dangerous conditions will have to face the music.”

Jaco Kleynhans, a spokesman for trade union Solidarity, said it was important that all parties monitored the enforcement of the new laws.

“We welcome the new laws because it is what unions have been asking for,” Kleynhans said. “This country needs more mining regulations because mining companies had a lot of time in the past to improve safety levels in mines.”

A mine executive, who asked not to be named, said: “These new laws are unrealistic in many ways.

“For instance, if an inspector closes a mine after rendering it unsafe, we are still battling to see how this would later be retracted. Such an action will obviously hamper the overall mine administration.

“Another problem is that this will make it very difficult for mining companies to retrain the senior skilled workforce because of the fear of incrimination, regardless of one’s efforts towards safe mining.”

According to the department of minerals and energy, there have been 156 fatalities in South African mines since the beginning of the year.