You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.
ADVERTISEMENT
CONTINUE READING BELOW
Download the free LiSTN audio app on Google Play, Apple or here.
JEREMY MAGGS: At least eleven miners have died at the Impala Platinum (Implats) mine in the North West province. The incident occurred after a cable malfunctioned, and that caused a cage carrying workers to plunge downwards. Now, some key aspects from a statement that we received from Implats this morning, a further 75 employees were injured in the accident.
The mine rescue operation we understand is complete. All 86 employees are accounted for.
The mine tells us it’s presently in the process of informing and liaising with impacted families, in consultation with the Association of Mine Workers and Construction Union (Amcu). Implats says it’s also working closely with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), and all mining operations at Impala Rustenburg have been suspended today.
Obviously, the tragedy has raised the question of mine safety in South Africa. Joining us now is David van Wyk, who is a mining research analyst. David, a very warm welcome to you. As this tragedy unfolds, what’s your initial assessment of what went wrong?
DAVID VAN WYK: The winch cable broke on cages that take workers down and they plunged down the mine shaft. I don’t know how far down they were before they started plunging, but the fact that eleven people are dead and 35 people are seriously injured, and we might have more fatalities before the day is over, indicates that it was very serious.
Read: Eleven workers dead after incident at Impala’s Rustenburg mine
Now, I know that for some time now Num (National Union of Mineworkers) and Amcu and so on have complained about the Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate not effectively investigating and checking on winch cables, which are incredibly important.
Your life hangs by a thread basically, where every time you go down and if that winch cable breaks, the tragedy is really bad. So that is that is what we think happened.
But we also note that over public holidays, especially over Christmas and so on, there’s always a spike in mine accidents and fatalities in South Africa. That is because workers are chasing bonuses and very often the safety officers that are going down with each team are told to ignore safety issues because the miners are chasing productivity bonuses so they can take more money home. That might be a contributing factor as well, so between those two things.
The other thing, of course, is that those are incredibly old mines. Mines around Rustenburg started in the 1930s. Clearly, maintenance is important and as the resource declines and costs of extracting the mineral increases, so less and less money is paid on health and safety.
JEREMY MAGGS: So having outlined those issues in terms of safety protocol, what questions need to be asked urgently and what answers need to be given?
DAVID VAN WYK: Well, I think that we are concerned, and we’ve expressed this concern very often. The Department of Mineral Resources is so desperate to sustain investment in mining when there’s a resource decline … and we should allow these mines to gradually go out of life, rather than trying to sustain them.
If a mine is no longer profitable, don’t cut the health and safety spend so that you can maintain the profitability of the mine.
Rather let the mine close down and rehabilitate it or repurpose it for other purposes and so on than what you cut back on health and safety and environmental spend and things like that, because that’s a recipe for disaster in this country.
ADVERTISEMENT
CONTINUE READING BELOW
JEREMY MAGGS: So it would seem to me that the culture of safety that the industry tells us it’s adhering to and is maintaining within the sector itself is simply lip service. That’s the suggestion that you’re making.
DAVID VAN WYK: Well, yes, I think that the fact of the matter is that our mines are far less safe than Australian mines or Canadian mines and so on. Simply because in those countries, workers are far more valued than what they are in South Africa. Our system is based on a cheap labour system. Our workers in our mines get by a factor of [ten times] less than what an Australian or Canadian worker gets, in much more difficult and dangerous circumstances.
So until we actually begin to value the people who create the wealth from our minerals, we are going to have these kinds of fatalities.
The other thing, which is contributing of course, is that we’ve lost 34 000 jobs in the last six months through retrenchments on the mines. Various big mining companies have announced retrenchments, and this morning I hear that even ArcelorMittal in KwaZulu-Natal has announced another 3 400 job losses there in the steel industry.
Read: ArcelorMittal to cut 3 500 jobs in SA as growth slows
These job losses are a factor of a declining industry, but it also is a factor of crumbling infrastructure around mines and operations and so on. You hear of iron mines retrenching people because the railway system isn’t working properly and so on. The ports are congested, the minerals can’t get out of the country and so on. So you are having an accumulation of factors that actually will make mining increasingly hazardous if we don’t take care of it.
JEREMY MAGGS: So what sort of answer then would you expect from Impala Platinum? What would its next move need to be?
DAVID VAN WYK: Well, Impala Platinum will have to shut down that mine. They will have to make it safe first. They would have to investigate the cause. It’s not just … the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy because the DMRE will have to send an inspector out there and see what went wrong.
If indeed it was that the cables were very old and they were not being maintained, as Amcu and the unions are suggesting, then someone must be held liable for that.
The inspector who didn’t do the inspection and of course then the mine management that are overseeing the operation for not paying attention to safety.
JEREMY MAGGS: David van Wyk, thank you very much indeed.
