Labour unions on Wednesday called for continuous improvements through real time monitoring, safety audits and retraining of mining workers to avoid continued fatalities underground after Harmony Gold reported five fatalities from separate incidents at two of its mines in South Africa.
According to the Minerals Council, the South African formal mining industry reported 42 fatalities in 2024, a 24% reduction on the previous year. However, mining labour unions say mining companies should put more efforts to attain zero harm, with the Minerals Council also agreeing that the industry is “on the path to zero harm,” given the reduction in fatalities in the past year.
However, the deaths of five Harmony Gold employees on Tuesday appeared set to muddy the progress the industry is making towards harm reduction. The South African gold miner said two employees had lost their lives following a mining incident at a development end at Doornkop Mine, in Soweto, Gauteng while three others had died from injuries sustained from a fall of ground incident at the Joel mine in the Free State on the same day.
“We are doing all we can to prevent safety incidents through embedded and proactive risk management practices alongside our humanistic safety culture transformation journey,” said Beyers Nel, the CEO of Harmony Gold.
Jim Irvin, the general secretary of National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), told Business Report that the Harmony Gold incidents on Tuesday was “a tragedy which happened in two separate mines almost at the same” time. He said South African mining companies had to prioritize the safety of workers although he said Harmony Gold, where Numsa has members, had vibrant safety and health programs.
“We can’t have industries that advances profits before safety of workers in particular mining industry which is inherently dangerous. Harmony has set up structures and has got a vibrant program to address health and safety that’s why as the union we are extremely shocked and we would have to ensure that there is a thorough investigation on the two fatality incidents in two mines to find out what exactly happened,” said Irvin in an interview.
Numsa has secured a longer-term wage agreement with Harmony Gold, with Irvin highlighting that this benefits workers and gives the mining company stability. This stability was supposed to “be effectively utilised to deal with strategic issues, key among them the health and safety” of workers.
Another mining trade union, Solidarity, said the 42 mining fatalities reported by the Minerals Council for 2024 was “not acceptable” and needed further improvements to attain zero harm.
“Accidents such as these (Harmony Gold’s five fatalities this week) emphasise the need for continuous improvement, and it says that a lot of work is still needed to further enhance and improve safety, for instance, by implementing of technology, integration, such as real time monitoring, by further enhancing training programs and continuous training, including advanced training of employees, continuous employee engagement to further support participation by employees in safety and health discussions, and reporting of risks without fear at this point,” Johan Boning, the head of occupational health and safety for Solidarity said on Wednesday.
To its credit, Harmony Gold was “one of the companies that actually command employees to report potential risks, and to exercise their right in terms of section 23 to leave dangerous places,” he added.
However, the South African mining industry now needed to “improve and enforce strict compliance with handling explosive handling procedures” such as waiting periods.
In late afternoon trade, Harmony’s share price was 0.52% higher at R222.93. Mining counters on the JSE have been rallying on strong bullion prices as investors pile into gold amid increased geopolitical volatility.
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