Articles
Mineworkers to down tools over safety
May 4th, 2011
The National Union of Mineworkers (Num) will hold a one-day protest over safety in the North-West province on Saturday, which could affect some mining operations in the area.
How to audit a management system
April 28th, 2011
Sheq management system audits could avoid traditional audit pitfalls. New or renewed audit cycles could avoid perception problems and ensure good management.
Bird incident pyramid true or false?
March 6th, 2011
Health and safety management methods based on the Bird incident pyramid are false, argues Australian safety psychologist David G Broadbent.
Significant Sheq decisions are made based on practitioners fumbling around in veils, mists, half truths and ‘magic mushrooms’, writes David G Broadbent on Transformationalsafety.com in the extract below;
A major health …
Negligence, Legal Liability & Contractors
February 3rd, 2011
The correct implementation of contractor and agent management forms an important part of a Health and Safety program. It can limit the risk of claims due to negligence.
Prevent manual handling injuries
December 4th, 2010
Workers often injure fingers in lifting, handling or replacing an access plate, cover, grid or lid on a floor, channel or drain, instead of using lifting handles.
Operational procedures should include manual lifting and manual handing job instructions, with relevant tools to hand.
Most workers instinctively bend over, and grasp at …
Gauteng to pump and treat acid mine water
November 26th, 2010
‘Pump and treat’ stations east and west of Johannesburg could keep acid mine drainage below groundwater level, to give the city clean water within a decade.
South Africa’s government would have to act in 2011 to save the last remaining Johannesburg gold mine at Central Rand Gold, and Gold Reef …
How to harvest water from thin air
November 22nd, 2010
It takes a moment to understand what the six-metre high net has been set up to capture: water. The Tshiavha Primary School’s water supply is pulled out of the fog that rises over this mountainous part of South Africa’s Limpopo Province.
The school’s fog net traps 2,500 litres of water per day, more than enough for the school’s pupils to drink.
The …
Miners with Silicosis left to fend for themselves
November 22nd, 2010
Despite reassuring statements from the mining industry and government, many former gold miners face a bleak future as their health deteriorates with little help or support offered. The devastating effects of tuberculosis and silicosis are sweeping through many rural communities and the victims of the diseases remain in desperate need of medical assistance and compensation.
Scientific studies over the past decade …
Corporate culture runs deeper than sports
October 2nd, 2010
Sheq culture symbols, dramatisation, and mascot programmes unlock huge organisational value, but ‘opportunist’ events and mascots soon fizzle out.
Industrial theatre practitioner, Marié Beytell-Coetzer, writes; “We had advised several employers to base their Sheq culture activation programmes on their own enduring symbols, values, aspirations, strategies and interventions, not on one …
How to develop health and safety policy
September 20th, 2010
Vision, Mission, Policy and Strategy derive from consultation, result in clear, brief, and increasingly practical statements, and set a keynote for corporate culture.
Policy development is a multi layered process, including a consultative process with executives one or two steps lower in the hierarchy, since they would give effect to …
