Training company KBC Health & Safety believes that a primary health and safety risk in the mining industry is the inability of mineworkers to proactively identify and deal with hazards in the workplace.

KBC Health & Safety operations director Norman Hartman tells Mining Weekly that a change in the culture of organisations and the behaviour of people operating on all levels within the mining industry is necessary if the goal of ‘zero harm’ is to be achieved by the mining industry by 2013.

In an effort to attain this goal, KBC Health & Safety has partnered with former South African national soccer team goalkeeper Andre Arendse to form Riski Diski, a recently launched training intervention. The intervention aims to change both employee and contractor behaviours and mindsets around safety, health and environmental issues.

The health and safety training programme operates on the premise that unwanted incidents, such as injuries and fatalities, can be averted by creating a shift in the individual’s mindset towards health and safety and human behaviour patterns that will constructively impact on an organisations culture.

Author of Falling Ground, a publication on mine safety, Dr Phillip Frankel previously told Mining Weekly that at least 60% of the problem in the mining and construction industries in South Africa is a behavioural one and that organisations need to focus on dealing with this challenge by aligning human behaviour with systems in the organisations.

The Riski Diski approach towards aligning behaviours with systems through pro- active hazard identification and risk analysis is being achieved on mines across South Africa through the use of interactive practical sessions and themed classroom-based training.

Arendse says by harnessing South Africa’s penchant for the game of soccer, the health and safety training programme uses soccer analogies to employ the health and safety methodology.

“The link between soccer and everyday work allows workers to engage and understand the correct processes and procedures so that they are able to identify hazards, introduce and maintain controls and also take personal responsibility for their own safety,” says Arendse.

The programme consists of two levels, the first of which is targeted at mineworkers and supervisors. Core issues around hazard identification, risk assessment and worker/supervisor communication are dealt with over a two-day period.

Trainees engage in a number of interactive activities, including six-a-side soccer on a football field, which ensures that the principles learnt during the classroom-based training are consolidated. The second level, which is targeted at senior and executive management, deals with the safety behaviours that would support the sustainable drivers of a zero-harm environment.

“The Riski Diski programme encourages mines to manage safety problems, as opposed to simply exploring the problems. By creating a safety culture within an organisation, the programme also encourages sustained behaviour and not just learnt behaviour, as is done in traditional health and safety training,” explains Arendse.

The first large-scale roll-out of the Riski Diski programme recently came to an end with much success at coal producer Eyesizwe-owned Mafube colliery, in Mpumalanga.

Mafube colliery GM Themba Masonda initially heard about the programme at a South African Colliery Managers Association presentation and recognised the value that it could add to the Mafube workforce. Since completion of the training programme, Mafube has maintained its zero-harm record.