A recent government report has revealed the safest year on record for South Africa, though the nation’s mines minister is calling for even more work to be done.
The new report, according to Reuters, said accident-related deaths in the country’s mines fell from 74 to 49 in 2022. Injuries were down from 2,123 in 2021 to 1,946 last year.
Despite the improvements, the Minister of Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe said as the report was released in Pretoria that the numbers are still high.
“An incident is a pointer that there was a potential fatality,” he said.
Lerato Tsele, acting head of safety and sustainable development at the Minerals Council of South Africa, added that the industry will build on 2022 momentum.
“[That was] when we halted and significantly reversed the regression in safety during the previous two years in which 74 and 60 of our colleagues died in 2021 and 2020, respectively.”
Per industry statistics cited by Reuters, mine fatalities have been on the decline since 209 miners died in 1999. However, numbers in 2020 and 2021 did rise once again.
Source: Reuters