South African Gold Mines

Acting on behalf of the its executive council, the Chamber of Mines of South Africa conducted research into the impediments to improvements to health and safety in the mining industry. The study concluded that there was a need for a transformational change of the mining culture to embed health and safety as part and parcel of production. The study further concluded that the involvement of senior executives and underground mineworkers was critical to the success of the initiative. This was to ensure that the initiative does not end with the people who were running it in the mines. This study led to the implementation of the MOSH Leading Practice Adoption System which was intended to ensure that the culture of health and safety was embedded in the culture of the mining industry to an extend where mineworkers were perceived, and saw themselves, as part of the decision process specifically on health and safety. The leaders of the mining industry were critical in creating an environment that would ensure that impediments to the transformational initiative were removed as well as creating incentives for the change initiative