South Africa safety law slammed by Chamber

Legal Brief

Publishing Date: 17 Dec 2008 4:44pm GMT
Author: Mining Environmental Management

Health and Safety Legal and Legislation

South Africa’s new mining health and safety law, which included higher financial penalties and a criminal liability clause, has been labelled unconstitutional by the country’s chamber of mines.

The new law, which was passed in November, included an increase in fines for accidents and poor safety standards from R200,000 (US$20,000) to R1 million, and introduced an amendment that would allow chief executives and mine managers to be criminally charged if they were found to have caused serious injury or death.

The amended law was the government’s response to South Africa’s chronic safety record which has seen more than 150 fatalities at mines so far this year, with a total of 221 fatalities recorded in 2007.

The amendments have been welcomed by South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers, which last year held its first strike over safety condition.

But the chamber of mines decried the changes and unconstitutional and said they rely too strongly on punitive measures.

“The South African mining industry could lose the services of a considerable number of highly skilled managerial and supervisory employees,” the chamber said in a statement, adding that many will choose to work where they do not faced the threat of imprisonment.

The new law has yet to be sanctioned by the South African president, Kgalema Motlanthe.