Mantashe warns not to ‘whip up emotions’ after deadly Implats accident

Mantashe’s comment comes after eleven miners were killed at Impala Platinum’s Rustenburg operations in North West.  

Scores of others were also injured on Monday evening when an elevator bringing the workers back up to the surface malfunctioned. 

Impala Platinum has since suspended operations at its mines throughout the country. 

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Mantashe said an investigation has been launched to determine the root cause of the accident. 

“The mining industry is a difficult sector, it’s a dangerous sector, it’s a dirty sector, and it’s a diseased sector.  

“I want us to avoid a situation when there is a disaster in a mine; we then whip up emotions around that issue because it is not a helpful exercise. We have seen a number of disasters in the industry, and we have been working on improving the safety, and we continue doing so.

“There will be an investigation. It is part of the requirements prescribed by law to investigate disasters and accidents in the mining industry.”

Mantashe said the safety of all mineworkers has been a government priority. 

“Safety in the mines is not a function of just one thing. It’s more a function of management and labour working together. That’s why, in the law, a worker has a right. It’s not a privilege. It’s a right to refuse to enter a dangerous place.

“The safety of a mineworker depends on the next mineworker, that I know because it is the next mineworker who will see a rock hanging and warn you about it and say move out of that area. So, safety depends on all of us working together to ensure that there is zero harm.”   

Impala Platinum CEO Nico Muller said the families of the affected mineworkers will be provided with counselling.  

“As a mining company, we will take full accountability. This is our business, our employees, and our family, and we will endeavour to be as transparent to all stakeholders involved, including the media, in giving full disclosure as we navigate through this absolutely horrific human tragedy. 

“We will endeavour to walk the path with all of our employees, colleagues and, in particular, family and friends of the employees. Typically, in a situation like this, we bring the family to the operation, we provide counselling, our HR team will look at the mental health or trauma that colleagues go through, and we will make sure that we walk the path with our employees.

“In the event of an injury or fatality of one of our employees, there are a number of statutory obligations that the minister has referred to. In addition to that, Implats as a company has got additional measures such as employing family members in place of members that we have lost, such as financial provision for studies of dependent children.”

Muller said according to information at their disposal, the safety system indicated it was safe to use the mine shaft.    

“It was tested prior to being used, and indications were that all the safety systems were active and operational. So, the investigations have to lead us to understand how, with a positive signal on the safety systems, it happens that in spite of that affirmation, you still have an incident where you have a conveyance that starts gravitating to the bottom and then gets into an uncontrollable decent and only stopped via manual intervention and why there is no intervention from the safety system.”

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