The Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) Tripartite Principals Pledge (the Pledge) is a public commitment by all stakeholders in South Africa’s mining industry – Government, Organised Labour and Industry – to work together to achieve the ultimate goal of Zero Harm. The Pledge was signed by the relevant principals at the Mine Occupational Health and Safety Summit on 17 November 2016.

Tripartite Leadership Workshop:

Prior to the Summit, the Mine Health and Safety Council convened a Tripartite Leadership Workshop – under the leadership of the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources, Godfrey Oliphant -on 12 October 2016, to address concerns raised by stakeholders regarding the state of occupational health and safety in mining.

This is was especially important in the context of extremely disappointing fatality numbers in 2016, as compared to 2015. Deputy Minister Oliphant urged that the industry pledge that there will be no more fatalities until the end of the financial year.

The workshop allowed all stakeholders to review the industry’s current Occupational Health and Safety performance in respect of the 2014 Summit OHS milestones and targets; identify the areas of concern influencing the industry’s current OHS performance and the impact on the achievement of Summit milestones and targets; analyse the interventions applied and mapping out what worked and what did not; discuss what the different stakeholders can do collectively and individually to bring about a step change to improve the industry’s OHS performance; and explore new ways to address challenges facing mine occupational health and safety.

The Chamber of Mines President, Mr Mike Teke, notes that “the session was a great success through robust discussions and presentations made by different stakeholders expressing their views on pertinent issues relating to occupational health and safety on the South African mining industry”.

At the end of that workshop, there was full consensus that all stakeholders will have to do things differently if the sector is to achieve the milestone targets and our ultimate goal of Zero Harm.

To this end, the Pledge was signed by leaders of all industry stakeholders at the Mine Occupational Health and Safety Summit, allowing all participants to act as witnesses to the commitments that have been made.

The MHSC Tripartite Principals Pledge:

1.  TRIPARTITE VISIBLE FELT LEADERSHIP AND RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Action: Principals and leaders of all stakeholder groups commits to meeting at least on two facilitated sessions on health and safety matters per annum.

2.  TRUST DEFICIT

Action: All stakeholders will address the issue of trust deficit amongst the stakeholders moving from a transactional to transformative approach on OHS matters.

3.  COMMUNICATION

Action: All stakeholders - the MHSC, Organised Labour, State and Employers - will commit to improving communication across all levels to ensure that the message of Zero Harm reaches all mine employees and contractors, and in so doing support and permeate actions intended to improve OHS throughout the industry.

4.  EMPOWERMENT OF SUPERVISORS AND EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

Action:

1. Stakeholders will collectively and collaboratively empower supervisors, health and safety representatives and employees through extended visible felt leadership and empowering conversations. This will not only be implemented by Employers but also other stakeholders from Organised Labour.
2. Tripartite Stakeholders will also strive to empower Women in Mining on Safety and Security challenges, Personal Protective Equipment and hygiene issues that impact on them.

5.  ANNUAL COMPANY HEALTH AND SAFETY DAYS

Action: Each mining company will commit to hosting an annual health and safety day tailored to their respective needs as part of their overall health and safety campaigns.