Thank you, Chair. We celebrated Workers' Day on Monday, and the topic we are debating today is how to make safety an imperative requirement for our mines. Speaking as a former miner, let me say that in most cases of fatalities on the mines there is the fall of ground, as the media have said.
Tramming is when transport the ore - the rock containing the mineral - from the digging places to the ore passes, which the hon Jacobs was talking about. Then we hoist it through the lift into the tips and into the plant. That is tramming and that is where most of the accidents happen.
On the "omakalanyana" - the small underground trains we call "omakalanyana" - is where people get hurt, because they fall between the trains and are trampled. This happens to some when they are joining the trucks. There are lot of hoppers - we call them hoppers and they are all the little trains, or the little tips, that there are underground. There are people who drive those trains, the "omakalanyana", underground and when you join them, it can happen that the person coupling or joining the trains gets trampled by them. That is where most of the accidents occur.
The key issue is that while technology and its various laws have advanced - it is 13 years since I left the mines - there has been very little progress as far as security is concerned, as well as in making sure that there is the minimum fall of ground.
Fall of ground is basically caused by the type of rock that you are mining. In the Free State and in parts of the Western Reefs and the East Rand, there is mostly what is called basal reef. The structure of basal reef contains silica and the rock that bears the gold, which is called the conglomerate. The layers of the latter in most cases differ in thickness from the thickness of a pencil to 10cm. However, above that we have 0,6m to 1,5m of quartzite, which is a hard rock that is composed of silica. That is where silicosis comes from. Above that there is shale, which is a very friable and soft rock. Between the Free State and the Vaal Reefs it ranges in thickness from 3m to 4m.
Now, what causes most of the rock falls is that that type of rock cannot actually be held tight by the roof bolts. What we drill into the hanging wall are called roof bolts. When we go underground there is just rock, and we drill into the hanging wall to make sure that the rocks don't fall on the people when they are working under them on the ground. The technology to hold the rock in place will take years to advance. We can drill up to 3m, but if it reaches the friable rock, with time it will collapse. That is what causes most of what we call "falls of ground". In 2003, the mining sector and labour set the target that they would like to reduce fatalities in the mines by 20% year on year. In 2007 that target was reached by 4%. In 2003, 270 people died on the mines, but in 2007 only 129 people died. The target was exceeded by 4%. In 2011, as the Minister has said, 123 people died. That is a marginal improvement on safety in the mines, when we compare it with 270 fatalities in 2003.
Another key issue that has a direct impact on the mines is the attitude of the people working on the mines. When you go underground, there are five key rules that you must adhere to - "lo five mthetho kalo mayini" in Fanagalo. You must make sure that you have a lamp wherever you go. You must make sure that the place is safe. When you go underground you must make sure that all the hanging rock is removed, and that the people are working safely and that they continue working safely. Those are part of the five "lo mthetho kalo mayini" - the five key rules underground.
This is important for the unions especially, as well as for the mine bosses - particularly the chief bosses and the mine overseers - because these are the people who are actually working on the ground. It is important for them because of something else: the profits. The hon Sinclair said that mine management must make sure that they put less pressure on the mineworkers for profit. It is true that at the end of the day profits are what the mines are chasing, and that's what brings about this lack of regard for safety and for people to work safely on the mines.
It is because they are always chasing a target. This is what we call a "call"; for instance, you must blast at least 100m per day. In order for you to understand this, 100m a day might be almost as big as half of this room. You will find that to make sure that they get that much rock, people don't put in the proper support and do not make sure that the hanging rock is properly barred. To remove all the hanging rock and put in support is called barring. For instance, according to gold mining standards, all the pegs - all the support - must be not more than 3m from the face. That is according to gold mining standards. However, you find that at some places it's up to 4,5m from the face. That is where you will find that big slabs fall on people while they are working.
On the other hand, as I said, there is the attitude. There are people who are working underground in the stopes, in the raises and in the haulages. Some of them, because they are team leaders, would like to make a bonus at the end of the day. You cannot get a bonus unless you blast more square metres than the target. That is the problem that is pushing a lot of people to work as unsafely as they can, because at the end of the day they want to go home with a bonus and they cannot get that unless they've blasted more square metres. That is the reason for lax safety. Unless we change that attitude, especially of mine bosses, of pushing people to produce more square metres because they are chasing profits, I think we will continue to lose the battle.
As we celebrate this Workers' Day, let me come to the people who were working on the mines and have been laid off from the mines. How do they make a living? Most of these people have worked underground. Some of them have acquired skills, but it is important that we reskill these people so that they can continue making a living. For instance, we have mechanics underground, who look after the hoppers, "omakalanyana", winding machines and winches. There are electricians, because these things use electricity to move. When you blast, there are the drillers, the "omshiniboys". That is a derogatory term, but they call them "omshiniboys", the rock drillers. They drill and then they charge all the holes that they have drilled. In order for those things to go off when they blast, you need people who have the skill to put in the charges and connect the wires. Those people have knowledge of electricity to some extent.
Then there are the people who insert the fans underground. It is very hot and you sweat there. So most of the time you get high temperatures, which are reduced by putting in fans. They are called "imfene" in Fanagalo. The people who put in the fans underground have skills because they know how to connect them.
There are also mechanics working with the rail tracks, because the front- end loaders go on rails. In the gold mines especially there are rails underground. Those people are able to install rails underground in a very nice way. So those are the skills that can be reused in our infrastructure development. There are rail tracks, I think, from Kuruman in the Northern Cape down to Saldanha Bay. Those are the people we should be thinking of in regard to reskilling.
We have the Royal Bafokeng and labour-saving areas. Royal Bafokeng Platinum is a good example of where the people who live in the area have a share in the mining of the minerals. For instance, the Royal Bafokeng have 56,93% - they own 93,82 million shares in the mines. That is another example of how we can make sure that people who leave the mines still make a living and can at least earn something from the mines.
The Freedom Charter states that the riches of the earth will be shared by all who live on the earth. I see that my time is up, Chairperson. Thank you.