SA faces challenges in entrenching safety culture

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MINE HEALTH & SAFETY

SA faces challenges in entrenching safety culture – DuPont

22nd July 2011

By: Jonathan Faurie

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US-based training solutions company DuPont, which has a specific focus on industry safety in the engineering and mining sectors, reports that South Africa faces challenges when it comes to entrenching a culture of safety.

DuPont global principal psychologist Dr Rod Gutierrez reports that, although many countries face similar problems, South Africa does have unique challenges not prevalent anywhere else in the world.

“The first such challenge is that of the culture of the mining industry, which, to me, is one of variable risk tolerance. Because of the other unique challenges, South African mineworkers often rather take risks to increase production than step back and proactively eliminate unsafe behaviours and risk. “There is often no observed internal value for true balance between production targets and personal safety,” says Gutierrez.

Another problem, which has been iden- tified in the past by other industry professionals, is that the country is rich in diversity with a multitude of cultures that have little to nothing in common with each other. Added to this are migrant workers, from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia, who have even less in common, culturally, with South Africans.

Gutierrez points out that another challenge is the literacy levels of workers. Historically, mineworkers were not afforded the same educational opportunities as other South Africans. A complicating factor is the current level of South Africa’s education system, which points to poor national literacy levels among the country’s youth.

There are also the socioeconomic levels of the country’s mineworkers, many of whom live from hand to mouth.

This is an issue that has been raised in discussions between Mining Weekly and the National Union of Mineworkers, where its president, Senzeni Zokwana, questioned the issue of production bonuses, saying that ‘dangling a carrot’ before workers unnecessarily put them at risk. He was of the opinion that, if such bonuses were incorporated into the workers’ wages, they would take fewer risks.

“The question of merging strategies also needs to be [dealt with]. Every company has a different safety strategy, which attempts to meet safety standards outlined by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). “If mining companies could establish a national safety strategy, it would be a significant step forward in entrenching a safety culture within the industry,” says Gutierrez.

He adds that DuPont does offer safety assessments and holistic strategies, which encompass the company’s experiences within different international industries, that can be implemented in South Africa.

“DuPont’s methodologies are based on behavioural science studies of people around the world. “These can be applicable to the South African market because, at the end of the day, humans are humans. Psychological differences do occur, but these are not dramatic differences that cannot be over- come,” says Gutierrez.

DuPont has, in the past, approached mining companies directly, offering its suite of services, and Gutierrez points out that approaching the DMR with a possible collaborative nationally accepted safety strategy is not an impossibility.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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