WILLEM LE ROUX The South African mining industry is in danger of being overregulated
The draft regulations proposed by the Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) were akin to overregulation in several instances, law firm ENSafrica executive consultant Willem le Roux said at the Mine Health and Safety Seminar, hosted by ENSafrica’s department of mine and occupational health and safety in Sandton last month.
He believes that the proposed draft regulations – an effort by the MHSC to be ‘progressive’ in terms of ensuring better health and safety – could actually suffocate the industry in certain respects, consequently limiting career paths, damaging profitability and potentially increasing downtime through overwrought red tape.
“Government should not be overregulating the industry. There are already too many restrictions on economic activity in the country,” Le Roux told delegates.
Interested parties to the MHSC’s proposed draft regulations dealing with the appointment, duties and responsibilities of certain persons – referred to in Chapter 2 – were requested to furnish comment by the end of August.
Le Roux guided delegates through some of the contentions he had raised with the MHSC in this regard.
These included the highly prescriptive nature of the proposed regulations’ new rules regarding succession plans for mine management; the ambiguous language used; and the draft regulations demanding extensive digital monitoring solutions such as the requirement to implement expensive seismic networks in certain mines.
“The legislature’s move to overdigitise puts the mining industry in danger of being stifled,” he warned.
While he applauded efforts by the industry and regulators to continuously seek improved health and safety standards, he reminded delegates that these efforts should not make the industry lose sight of economic sustainability.