By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — "It's like going to war!" That was how Kgalema Motlanthe, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, recently described the situation facing this country's 500,000 mineworkers every day.
The sweat and blood of generations of mine workers have been the foundation on which the South African capitalist economy was built. Miners have paid a heavy a price for being the "cannon-fodder" of the ruling class. Not only have they been forced to suffer the atrocities and inequities of the apartheid system, put in place to benefit the mining conglomerates, they have had to endure probably the most appalling safety and health conditions in the world.
Since gold was discovered in the Transvaal in 1886, almost 70,000 mine workers have been killed and over 1 million injured. There has been no let up in this carnage as was grimly illustrated on July 17 when hundreds of injured and disabled NUM members converged on the offices of the department of energy and mineral affairs. The veritable traffic jam of wheelchair-bound workers, joined by dozens of other miners on crutches, underscored the union's charge that the Chamber of Mines is more concerned with the maintenance of their profits than it is in the lives of mine workers.
Average annual fatality rates show that there has only been a marginal improvement in safety standards over the last 50 years. In 1993, 578 miners died in accidents (more than one death per thousand miners), there were at least 8000 accidents and 7800 "reportable" injuries.
In South Africa, an injury is only reported if a worker is absent from work for 14 days or more; in most other countries accidents are reported after four days' absence. The NUM estimates that injury rates would double if that standard was applied in South Africa.
These deplorable statistics have prompted the government to institute the first judicial inquiry into health and safety in the mining industry for 30 years. The inquiry's hearings began on July 19.
Disregard for safety
Prior to the hearings, the NUM said it would argue that the terrible toll is caused by management's disregard for workers and their safety. Workers receive inadequate training in health and safety. Management has control over all aspects of safety and health and this leads to workers' lives being sacrificed for continued production.
Safety standards and technology lag far behind those in Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada. As evidence, the union points to statistics that show South African mines are many times more dangerous than those in other countries. For example, the fatality rate in South Africa's coal mines in 1992 was 0.64 per 1000 workers compared to 0.43 in NSW, 0.36 in the US, and 0.08 in the UK.
The NUM is calling for the inquiry to recommend sweeping changes in legislation that will force companies to improve safety. A key demand is for the right of workers to elect safety stewards and the right, protected in law, to refuse to work in unsafe areas.
"We believe human beings have to strive for zero defect and that goes for the mining industry as well," Kgalema Motlanthe said. "We think there isn't enough emphasis on measures to prevent accidents. The mine bosses are too ready to explain away accidents as acts of God. We believe with sufficient training, with the legislative framework which imposes certain standards, accidents could be reduced.
"We have been battling with mine bosses to get them to agree that we should elect safety stewards. It is very ironic that those whose production bonuses depend on accidents not being reported are given the responsibility to oversee safety measures. Safety ought to be the responsibility of the entire work force ... We are looking for laws that empower all the workers to have safety as their right.
"The present argument of the mine bosses says, if you come to work in the mine industry, you must accept the risks involved. The choice is between staying at home and starving or coming down the mines and accept that you may die. It's like going to war. We think that is an unacceptable state of affairs."
Opposition to safety standards
The mining industry has indicated it will take a starkly different approach before the inquiry. According to the aptly named Johann Greef, Chamber of Mines safety and technical services general manager, the only way to stop fatalities is to stop mining. The Chamber claims high accident rates are due to the fact that South Africa's mines are the world's deepest (some are 3.5 kilometres below the surface) which results in enormous pressures on the rock face.
Chamber president Jurie Geldenhuys is vehemently opposed to the commission recommending the introduction of "prescribed" safety standards arguing instead that each mine draw up its own health and safety rules. Prescribed rules would damage not only the industry but also the economy, he said.
Asked how South Africa's poor performance compared to the safety records of other countries, Geldenhuys' reply was that the "statistics compared to the modern world are not very good but they do rate well compared with Third World standards".
The commission is also likely to investigate the record of the mines department and its inspectors. Minerals and Energy Affairs deputy director Lionel Naude admits that compared to other countries, South Africa has fewer inspectors. Britain has 89 inspectors per 100,000 workers while South Africa has just 20 per 100,000. In comparison with their foreign counterparts, South African inspectors are poorly qualified.
Another important area the inquiry will deal with is compensation. Until January the law provided for 13 times more compensation for the white mineworker than it did for the black worker for suffering from the same occupational diseases or disability. However, when the National Party removed all references to race from the law, compensation benefits were also substantially reduced.
The commission began taking evidence on the coal mining industry on July 20. The Chamber of Mines revealed that 694 workers died while mining coal in the last 9 years. The figure was double the number of fatalities in the US for the same period, and six times that in the UK. The figures are also higher than Germany and Australia.
The commission was told that there are three to four methane explosions in South African coal mines every year and that there have been four serious explosions in the last 11 years. Edwin Cameron for the NUM said South Africa's 56,000 coal miners work in the most dangerous coal mines in the world.
On July 25, the NUM presented evidence that mine workers who spent 20 years or more underground had a one-in-two chance of being injured or contracting mining-related diseases. This makes mining the most hazardous occupation in the country. A 1989 government document found that 13 in every 1000 miners are permanently disabled in the course of their work, more than double the next most dangerous industries, fishing and forestry. Tuberculosis, silicosis and loss of hearing plague mine workers.
The commission of inquiry will sit for another three weeks.