BRIEFING TO THE PARLIAMENT PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON MINERAL RESOURCES

1. BRIEFING TO THE PARLIAMENT PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON MINERAL RESOURCES 24 June 2015

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Workers’ Compensation Legislation. • One Stop Services Sites. • Occupational health and safety Legislation. • Health and Safety Performance. • Challenges. • DMR Interventions. • 2014 Summit Commitments. • Conclusion.

3. ACRONYMS • AIDS– Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. • CWP – Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis. • DMR – Department of Mineral Resources. • HIV– Human Immunodeficiency Virus. • HEG - Homogeneous Exposure Groups. • MHSC – Mine Health and Safety Council. • MQA – Mining Qualification Authority. • NIHL – Noise Induced Hearing Loss. • NIOH – National Institute for Occupational Health. • OEL – Occupational Exposure Limit • PTB – Pulmonary Tuberculosis. • Si-TB - Silico Tuberculosis.

4. WORKERS’ COMPENSATION LEGISLATION

5. ONE STOP SERVICE SITES • Department collaborates with Departments of Health and Labour to establish One stop services. • Eastern Cape – Mthatha. • Gauteng - Carletonville. • Northern Cape – Kuruman (2015/16). • Limpopo – Burgersfort (2015/16). • Other provinces to follow including mobile units. • Neighbouring countries (2015/16).

6. ONE STOP SERVICE SITES (Cont.) • Health Services • Medical examinations • Rehabilitation assessment & services • Post mortems • Health Promotion • Social Services • Social Development • Counselling • Bursaries • Financial Services • Compensation • UIF, pension, provident and other funds

7. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION

8. EMPLOYER TO ESTABLISH SYSTEM OF MEDICAL SURVEILLANCE • 13(1)The employer must establish and maintain a system of medical surveillance of employees exposed to health hazards. • 13(2) Every system of medical surveillance must – • (a) be appropriate, considering the health hazards to which the employees are or may be exposed. • (b)(ii) prevent, detect and treat occupational diseases. • (c) consist of an initial medical examination and other medical examinations at appropriate intervals.

9. GUIDELINE FOR COMPILATION OF CODE OF PRACTICE Objective: To assist the employer of every mine to compile a COP which, if properly compiled and complied with, to ensure adequate medical surveillance.

10. OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO AIRBORNE POLLUTANTS • 9.2(1)The employer must ensure that the occupational exposure to health hazards of employees is maintained below the limits set out in Schedule 22.9(2)(a) and (b). • Crystalline Silica OEL : 0.1 mg/m3

11. GUIDELINE FOR COMPILATION OF CODE OF PRACTICE • Objective: • To assist the employer of every mine to compile a COP which, if properly compiled and complied with, will considerably reduce the risk of exposure to airborne pollutants including silica dust.

12. OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE PROGRAMME • Airborne pollutants risk assessment and Control. • Determination of Homogeneous Exposure Groups (HEG). • Personal dust exposure monitoring. • Airborne pollutants Measurement Methodology. • Linkage between occupational hygiene measurements and medical surveillance records. • Reporting and Recording.

18. SILICOSIS CASES REPORTED

19. 2013 HIV/AIDS AND TB DATA

21. CHALLENGES • Entrenching sustainable culture on health and safety in mining sector. • Exposure of workers to airborne pollutants. • None or inadequate reporting of health statistics. • High rate of occupational illness and diseases. • Effective implementation of Integrated HIV/AIDS and TB Programmes. • Timely adoption of research outcomes and leading practice.

22. DMR INTERVENTIONS ON HEALTH • Implement audit and inspection tools to improve on health matters including silicosis, noise induced hearing loss, HIV, AIDS and TB. • Where necessary withdraw mineworkers exposed to health hazards including dust in terms of legal provisions. • Review of the Mine Health and Safety legislation. • CEOs requested to engage independent institutions to review company’s health and safety systems. • Promotion of occupational health in the mining sector. (Tripartite workshops, MHSC promotional material and individual stakeholder engagements).

23. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT. • Collaborate with MQA to ensure that the curriculum of skills development programmes also include health and safety matters including on TB, HIV and AIDS. • Develop and implement action plan to improve pass rate of certificate of competency examinations including on occupational hygiene. • Training of occupational health and safety representatives and shop stewards. 10 915 trained during 2014/2015 period.

24. CAPACITY TO MONITOR COMPLIANCE. • Department embarking on restructuring process to strengthen capacity to monitor compliance with legal provisions. • Improve capacity on occupational health inspectors in the regions. • Commenced with learner inspector programme where 50 graduates were placed at different mines, including occupational health learners. • Enhance occupational health information evaluation.

25. 2014 SUMMIT COMMITMENTS • The following commitments were made, • Elimination of fatalities and injuries. • Rehabilitation of mine workers injured in the line of duty. • Elimination of occupational lung diseases including silicosis, Pneumoconiosis and Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis. • Elimination of Noise Induced Hearing Loss. • Reduction and prevention of TB, HIV and AIDS infections in line with the National Strategic Plan. • Integrate and simplify compensation systems. • Implementation of the approved Culture Transformation Framework including on women in mining concerns. • Launch and implement the Centre of Excellence which will focus on research and capacity building of mineworkers.

26. 2014 SUMMIT COMMITMENTS • Elimination of Silicosis • By December 2024, 95% of all exposure measurement results will be below the milestone level for respirable crystalline silica of 0.05 mg/m3 (these results are individual readings and not average results). • Using present diagnostic techniques, no new cases of silicosis will occur amongst previously unexposed individuals. • (“previously unexposed individual” are those unexposed to mining dust prior to December 2008 i.e. equivalent to a new persons who entered the industry in 2009)

27. 2014 SUMMIT COMMITMENTS • REDUCTION AND PREVENTION OF TB, HIV & AIDS INFECTIONS • By December 2024: TB incidence rate should be at or below the National TB incident rate; and • 100% of employees should be offered HCT annually with all eligible employees linked to an ART programme as per the National Strategic Plan (NSP).

28. 2014 SUMMIT COMMITMENTS • For each commitment clear action plans and initiatives were developed. • Implementation of risk-specific activities such as: • Adoption of leading practices • Implementation of research outcomes • Clear timeframes for delivery. • Roles and responsibilities defined.

29. CONCLUSION • Although there has been improvement, significant effort is still required to prevent harm on mineworkers as a result of health hazards. • The Department will continue to enforce the legal provisions and collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure that there is further improvement on the health matters.

30. THANK YOU.