Department to tighten up on safety

The Department of Mineral Resources will require mining companies to submit reports on health and safety, its director-general has told parliament.

The department says deaths have risen more than 25% in the first quarter of this year to 38 compared with the same period last year. The national union of mineworkers (NUM), however, says 50 miners have died between January and the middle of April.

"Boards of directors will be required to submit quarterly reports on health and safety that include statistics," Sandile Nogxina, the department's director-general, said in a presentation of the department's strategic plan for 2011-12.

Mining companies will also have to "indicate measures that should be taken to prevent occupational diseases and fatalities as well as serious injuries at our mines", he added.

He did not say when the reports would have to begin.

The NUM, which represents about 340000 workers in the mining, construction and electrical energy industries, has said it will decide on Thursday when to shut the sector down for a day to protest against the rise in mining deaths.

Nogxina said: "If mines cannot mine safely, they should not mine at all until effective measures are implemented to safeguard the health and safety of employees."

The Mine Health and Safety Act is also being reviewed, he said. Miners have high rates of tuberculosis and HIV/Aids, as well as other lung diseases attributed to their work.