Benjamin and Greef Committee of Inquiry into a National Occupational Health and Safety Council in South Africa

The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into a National Health and Safety Council in South Africa was presented to the Minister of Labour on the 29th May 1997. As of January 2004 the report had still not yet been officially published.

The body of the report suggest the following:

occupational accidents and work-related ill-health impose a considerable cost on the South African economy and society (the dearth of data results in this cost being underestimated);
prevention policies to promote and enforce compliance with OHS legislation are inadequately developed;
with the exception of the mining industry, a dwindling level of resources are devoted to the prevention of occupational accidents and work related ill-health;
there is a critical shortage of personnel to develop OHS policy and to enforce OHS legislation while, at the same time, existing human resources are inefficiently utilised;
the programmes of prevention and compensation agencies are insufficiently coordinated. Compensation agencies do not adequately promote the prevention of occupational accidents and work-related ill-health;
there is generally a low level of employer compliance with obligations in terms of compensation legislation and a low level of employee awareness of rights in terms of compensation legislation;
there is inadequate reporting of occupational accidents and, to a greater extent, work-related ill-health. This prevents the determination of the full extent of these problems, the effective development of preventive strategies and deprives employees of compensation benefits;
there is insufficient research on OHS and no coordinated research programme;
there is a severe shortage of skilled OHS personnel and no coordinated skills training strategy to address this shortage;
there is no coordinated communication strategy to raise public awareness of OHS and to promote active approaches among employers and employees.

As a result the practice of OHS across industries in South Africa is uncoordinated, fragmented and a burden on resources.

The Committee is of the view that existing legislation and administrative structures are unable to meet the challenges of technology, the expectations of employees, the requirements for enhanced productivity and competitiveness and the obligations of the state. Failure to do so will result in occupational accidents and work-related ill-health continuing to take an immense toll on human and economic resources. A new perspective and a fresh impetus is necessary to, at a national level, initiate a coordinated approach to occupational health, safety and compensation.

The Committee recommended that a national policy on occupational health, safety and compensation must be developed as the first step in a process to rectify the situation.

Leon Commission of Inquiry into Safety and Health in the Mining Industry (Report 1995)

South Africa has often prided itself as being the most advanced mining country in the world with regard to the development of innovative technologies for exploiting mineral resources. The degree of disease burden produced in the process of these mining endeavours has been on the other hand a neglected epidemic. Relentless pressure from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) resulted in the government and employers acceding to a commission being set up to investigate these conditions. The Leon Commission of Inquiry was the first to look into OHS in the South African mining industry for more than 30 years. No Commission with such wide ranging terms of reference to inquire into all aspects of the regulation of OHS had ever been appointed. The Commission found that over 69,000 mineworkers had died in the first 93 years of this century, and more than a million were seriously injured. Other accident statistics indicated that:

1,54 mineworkers were killed and 25,8 seriously injured for every 1000 workers exposed to underground risk work
the vast majority of injuries and deaths occurred at or in underground mines (99%)
gold mines are the most dangerous, accounting for 85,6% of all reported injuries and 72,7% of all reported fatalities
61,7% of gold mining fatalities were due to underground rockbursts or rockfalls
the second most dangerous subsector was the coal industry which was responsible for 15,4% of all mining fatalities
when compared to 19 other countries South Africa had the sixth highest fatality rate

In its investigations the Leon Commission sketched the following occupational health experience of miners:

Tuberculosis rates of 58 per thousand after 15 years of exposure
Shaft sinkers and stopers working 8000 shifts have more than 30% probability of developing silicosis
25% of the workforce would present with asbestos related disease including lung cancer after 20 years of exposure in an asbestos mine
50-60% of coal miners would develop coal miners pneumoconiosis after 40 years of exposure
40-80% of workers involved in drilling operations would have hearing problems after 10 years of exposure

The main emphasis and focus of occupational health activity on the mines has thus been on regulating the compensation for occupational diseases rather than the prevention thereof. The Minerals Act focused predominantly on the safety issues in the mining industry with no emphasis on promoting the occupational health status of workers. These deficiencies provided the impetus for the Commission recommending the following:

drafting of a new Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA, 1996) to provide the comprehensive legal framework for creating a health and safe working environment
restructuring of the enforcement agency
promulgating of regulations on rockfalls and rockbursts
promulgating of regulations and protective measures to protect the health of workers including occupational hygiene and medical surveillance programmes with specific reference to tuberculosis
restructuring of research institutions and health information systems
ensuring appropriate training and certification of all workers in the industry

It is worth noting that the MHSA is better than its counter part, the OHSA, in that it entrenches the right of workers to refuse to do dangerous work, thereby paving the way for improved health and safety conditions in the industry.

Nieuwenhuizen Commission of Inquiry into Compensation for Occupational Diseases (Report 1981)

The Commission considered the differences between the ODMWA and WCA. The Commission recommended that all compensation for diseases and injuries should fall under one Act which should be based on the WCA, with repeal of the ODMWA. Permanent incurable diseases listed under the ODMWA should be included in a third schedule for temporary curable disease. Single sum payments should be replaced by pensions, which should keep up with inflation. Early stage pneumoconiosis, diagnosed on chest X-rays should remain compensable even if there is no functional impairment. However, the earliest stage of pneumoconiosis diagnosed on x-ray should no longer be compensable. Compensation should not be awarded to miners with treatable tuberculosis. These recommendations were progressive to the extent that they envisioned a uniform system. However, the proposed exclusion of early stage pneumoconiosis and curable TB was a threat to the existing rights of mine workers.

The White Paper stating the Government policy following the Nieuwenhuizen Report was published in 1983. The most important directives of the White Paper were:

The Department of Health should be responsible for the administration of the new uniform act which should be based on the ODMWA and not the WCA.
The new legislation should be drafted by an interdepartmental working committee, and should provide a more favourable dispensation to all workers
Uniformity in diagnosis, compensation and certification should be ensured
Diseases that were compensable under WCA should fall under the new act, which should have a schedule for temporary curable diseases and a separate schedule for permanent incurable diseases

The next step was the drafting of the Occupational Medicine Bill. The central thrust of this bill was to extend medical examinations to risk industries, along the lines of mines and works, and as described in the ODMWA. This Bill failed to become law due to the resistance on the part of employers.

Erasmus Commission of Inquiry into Occupational Health (Report 1976)

The Commission found the provision of health services in industry to be:

inadequate for workers exposed to dust, chemicals, metals, gases, physical and biological hazards
standards for occupational health were lower in South Africa than overseas
inadequate statistics existed regarding conditions in the working environment, the state of health of the working population, and the nature of diseases contracted by workers
inadequate rehabilitation of workers affected by occupational diseases

Further, the state of legislation affecting occupational health was:

grossly duplicated - 12 separate government departments were involved
no single body was responsible
71% of workers were not covered by legislation
gross deficiencies in the existing legislation
the ability to change legislation was hampered by the slowest departments

It also commented on inadequate notification and compensation of occupational diseases, poor training and under-staffing of the factory inspectorate, and occupational medical and nursing departments. Together with the far reaching implications of this Commission, there was the start of workers organised into unions and the potential of costly civil action cases of workers against industry employers, and the rapidly changing working conditions. It was time for government to take action. The Erasmus Commission recommended a single consolidated Industrial Health Act. The government responded in 1983 with the Machinery and Occupational Safety Act (MOSA).

Marais Commission of Enquiry Regarding Safety in Mines (1963). First Interim Report: Organisation and Functioning of the Department of Mines and the Division of the Government Mining Engineer.

On the 21 January 1960 a disaster occurred at Coalbrook Colliery in which 437 persons lost their lives when a general failure of support pillars allowed a large area of the mine to collapse. Following the disaster the then Governor General of the Union of South Africa appointed a Commission of Inquiry under the Chairmanship of the Honourable Mr Justice J F Marias. The commission was given five terms of reference but only one of them, the fourth, was dealt with in the Interim Report of the Commission. No other report was published by the Marias Commission for reasons that are not known. The term of reference on which it reported reads:

"(4) Whether the supervision of mines exercised by the Department of Mines in terms of the said Act and regulations is adequate; if not, in what respects it should be improved in the interests of safety".

Click here for former Chief inspector of Factories' interview regarding the merger of the OHS and MHS Acts.