JOURNAL OF COAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

(CHINA) ISSN 1006-9097

pp 329333 Vol.14 No.2 June 2008

Overview of the South African mine health and safety standardization

and regulation systems

LI Zhong-xue(), LI Jia-jie(), LI Cui-ping(), LIU Shuang-yue()

( Key Laboratory of High Efficiency Mining and Safety for Metal Mines, Ministry of Education University of Science and
Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China )

Abstract Outlined the South African mine health and safety regulatory framework, in-
cluding the roles of government, tripartite council, service agencies, mine enterprises,
rescue stations and workers unions, analyzed the institutional structures of South African
mine health and safety standardization, including the South African standard and specifi-
cation systems and standard development processes, and characterized the South African
mine health and safety standardization and regulation systems. Intended to provide some
suggestions for the transformation and improvement of mine health and safety standardi-
zation and regulation systems in China or in similar situations.
Keywords mine health and safety, standardization, regulation, specification

regulation of mine health and safety in China.

Introduction
South Africa is one of the largest and most im-
portant mining countries in terms of the variety and
quantity of minerals produced. Fortunately, deep min-
ing accident rate has gradually declined for consecu-
tive 10 years in South Africa and mining safety has
reached the level of developed countries. The mine
emergency response and rescue systems are also ma-
tured. For example, 3 200 workers were trapped 2.4 km
underground at Harmony Golds Elandsrand mine near
Carletonville, south west of Johannesburg on October
3, 2007 and all of them were rescued to the ground
without casualties in about one day. The safe situation
in South Africa mining attributes largely to the fact
that mine safety is paid adequate attention to, mine
health and safety management and standard systems
are relatively comprehensive, and regulations on mine
health and safety are implemented effectively.
South Africas mining industry is labor intensive
and the quality of labor force is comparable to that in
China and an in-depth analysis of South Africas mine
health and safety standard and regulatory systems will
provide helpful suggestions for the standardization and
1 South Africas mine health and safety
regulatory framework
In South Africa, the Mine Health and Safety Act
of 1996, the Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act
of 1997 and the Mineral and Petroleum Resources
Development Act of 2002 constitutes a relatively
complete mine health and safety regulatory system and
many aspects of the system are worth learning by its
counterparts from the world [1].
The framework of South Africas mine health and
safety regulatory systems is established according to
the relevant acts and is composed of six categories of
constituency, including the government, a tripartite
council, service agencies, mine enterprises, rescue
stations and workers unions as shown in Table 1.
1.1 Government
The Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate (MHSI)
is a government agency at the Department of Minerals
and Energy (DME) and responsible for protecting the
health and safety of persons working at mines or af
fected by mining activities. The activities of the MHSI

Supported by National Key Technology R&D Program (2006BAK04A09)

Tel: 86-10-62333454, E-mail: zxli@pgschl.ustb.edu.cn
330
Table 1 Constituencies in South Africas mine health and
safety regulatory systems
Category Constituencies
Government Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate (MHSI)
Tripartite council Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC)
National Occupational Safety Association (NOSA)
Service agencies Chamber of Mines of South Africa (CMSA)
Mine enterprises
Mine health and safety committees
Safety representatives
Rescue stations Mine Rescue Services (Pty) Limited
Workers unions Employees
Safety repress-
Mine Rescue Services (Pty) Limited
entatives
are unequivocally focused on achieving a safer and
healthier mining industry for all. MHSI aims to reduce
mining-related deaths, injuries and diseases through
the establishment of national policy, legislation and
systems to regulate and enforce health and safety, and
support training in the mining industry. The major
functions of MHSI include providing policy inputs for
the establishment and application of mine safety stan-
dards, mine equipment safety standards, and mine
health standards at mining operations and promoting
their application; and ensuring an effective support
and inspection service. MHSI is headed by the Chief
Inspector, who is also chairperson of the boards of the
Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) and the
Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA).
1.2 The tripartite council
The tripartite MHSC consists of representatives
from the mining industrys employers, employees and
the Chief Inspector of Mines, who must chair the
Council. MHSC has three permanent committees, in-
cluding the Mining Regulation Advisory Committee
(MTAC), the Mining Occupational Health Advisory
Committee (MOHAC) and the Safety in Mines Re-
search Advisory Committee (SIMRAC). The Council
must advise the Minister of Minerals and Energy on
health and safety at mines including, but not limited to,
any legislation on mine rehabilitation in so far as it
concerns health and safety; coordinate the activities of
its committees, receive reports from the committees
and liaise with the MQA on matters relating to health
and safety; liaise with any other statutory bodies con-
cerned with matters relating to health and safety; pro-
mote a culture of health and safety in the mining in-
dustry; at least once every two years arrange and
coordinate a tripartite summit to review the state of
health and safety at mines; annually consider an over-
all program for relevant health and safety research for
approval as prescribed and deliver a copy to the Mi-
nister of Finance for considerations; and perform
Journal of Coal Science & Engineering (China)
every duty imposed upon the Council in terms of the
Mine Health and Safety Act.
1.3 Service agencies
The National Occupational Safety Association
(NOSA) and the Chamber of Mines of South Africa
(CMSA) are South Africas major mine health and
safety service agencies. These agencies work to pro-
vide related services and improve mine health and
safety situations.
NOSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of MICRO-
mega Holdings Limited and a leading global supplier
of occupational risk management services and prod-
ucts that enhance clients business performance.
NOSAs main capabilities are auditing and certifica-
tion, consulting and training. NOSAs services include
a unique five-star occupational risk management rat-
ing system, a NOSCAR awarding mechanism, con-
sulting services, publishing management magazines,
and organizing conferences and competitions. NOSAs
services have been pivotal in improving the occupa-
tional risk management performance in companies.
CMSA is a prominent industry employers or-
ganization and its members are independent mining
financial companies and mining companies, all of
whom associate within the chamber system on a vo-
luntary basis. Mineral products from the chamber
members take up to 85% of South Africas mineral
products. The chamber exists to serve its members and
promote their interests in the South African mining
industry. It does this through a variety of activities and
programs undertaken in areas where it is deemed de-
sirable for members to consult with one another on
matters of common concern or to cooperate in specific
industry-level policy responses and joint initiatives.
The chamber has a mine safety division responsible
for the implementation of the mine safety management
programs in the mining industry.
1.4 Mine enterprises
Full-time and part-time safety inspectors are re-
quired at every mine in South Africa. According to the
Mine Health and Safety Act of 1996, every mine with
20 or more employees must have a health and safety
representative for each shift at each designated work-
ing place at the mine and every mine with 100 or more
employees must have one or more health and safety
committees. A health and safety representative or a
member of a health and safety committee does not
incur any civil liability only because of doing or fail-
ing to do something which a health and safety repre-
sentative or a member of a health and safety commit-
tee may do or is required to do in terms of the act. In
addition, mine employers must provide adequate
health and safety training.
1.5 Rescue stations
Mine rescue services have a long history of de-
LI Zhongxue, et al. Overview of the South African mine health and
velopment dated back to 1924 in South Africa. On
August 6, 1996, a stand-alone company was estab-
lished and it is now known as Mines Rescue Services
(Pty) Limited. The company is a private non-profit
organization composed of voluntary mining groups
and is under the direction of a Board of Directors. The
mission of Mines Rescue Services is to be reliant by
recognizing competitiveness, maintaining cost effec-
tiveness and efficiency in the provision of a complete
structured emergency rescue system primarily to the
mining industry. Currently, there are three rescue sta-
tions operating and situated at strategic geographical
areas across the country.
1.6 Workers unions
Mine workers unions have a strong presence in
South Africas mining industry and one of their re-
sponsibilities is to help the miners earn a healthier and
safer work environment as well favorable work injury
compensation and death pension.
2 South Africas mine health and safety
standardization system
Standardization is a general term of ways by
which the functions of parties relating to standards are
designated, the relationships between the parties are
defined, and the various standardization activities are
organized, coordinated or implemented. Standardiza-
tion encompasses a broad range of considerations
from the actual development of a standard to its prom-
ulgation, acceptance, implementation and demonstra-
tion of compliance or conformance.
According to ISO/IEC, a standard is defined as a
document that provides, for common and repeated use,
rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or re-
lated processes and production methods, with which
compliance is not mandated. It may also include or
deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging,
marking or labeling requirements as they apply to a
product, process or production method. Meanwhile, a
technical regulation is defined as a document which
lays down product characteristics or their related
processes and production methods, including the ap-
plicable administrative provisions, with which com-
pliance is mandatory. It may also deal extensively with
terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labeling
requirements as they apply to the product, process or
production method.
Standards define quality and establish safety cri-
teria. Conformance to standards ensures quality and
consistency. As a primary facilitator for achieving
economic and societal goals, standards and conformity
assessment programs have become the basis of a
sound national economy and a sustainable society, and
the key to global market access and human welfare.
331
2.1 Mine health and safety standards
The usage and meaning of standards and specifi-
cations in South African technical regulatory practice
or in the context of present South African legislation
differs somewhat from usage internationally. Accord-
ing to the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS),
there are four levels of technical standards and speci-
fications. A specification is a document that sets out
the desired characteristics of a product or service; a
standard is a specification published as a SANS (SA
National Standard) by SABS; a compulsory specifica-
tion is a SANS Standard or a provision thereof de-
clared mandatory by the Minister of Trade and Indus-
try and is designed to protect the health or safety of
consumers, the environment, or for Consumer Protec-
tion; and a compulsory standard is a national standard
made compulsory by the reference of any government
minister in a law and the obligation to comply is the
same as with a compulsory specification.
In addition, technical regulations on mine health
and safety are promulgated by the Minister of Miner-
als and Energy.
2.2 Mine health and safety standard organiza-
tions
Standardization activities in South Africa are
ad-ministered by SABS, a statutory body in terms of
the Standards Act as the national institution for the
promotion and maintenance of standardization and
quality in connection with commodities and the ren-
dering of services. The mission of SABS is to offer
value-added standardization services on an ethical and
principled basis that uplift the African standard and
empower South African industry to compete vigo-
rously towards increased market access.
With a view to maximizing its service delivery to
the industries it serves, SABS recently aligned its ac-
tivities with seven different industry (including mining
and minerals) sectors, each housing the whole range of
SABS services pertinent to a particular industry. This
change ensures easy access to products, faster reaction
and turnaround times, and the creation of centers of
knowledge excellence that will be easily available to
clients.
The Mining and Minerals Division of SABS de-
velops national standards for mining industry and
coordinates South Africas input to the development of
international standards by ISO. SABS presently man-
ages the ISO TC 27 Secretariat the technical com-
mittee that governs the global standards for the sam-
pling, analysis and classification of coal and coke.
SABS provides a holistic range of sampling, analytical
and product certification services to South Africas
coal and mineral producers, and indirectly to the in-
ternational buyers of these South African commodities.
Having served the South African coal community for
332
several decades, Mining & Minerals has a reputation
worldwide as one of the leading sampling and analyt-
ical operators for the coal and minerals industry. More
than a billion tons of South African coal has been ex-
ported around the world on the strength of SABSs
certificates, ensuring global acceptance of both the
SABS brand as well as the integrity of the South Afri-
can coal industry. In addition to this, SABS also man-
ages the quality of South Africas total iron-ore export
on behalf of Kumba Resources Sishen Iron Company
at the Port of Saldanha.
The activities of SABS can be divided into non-
commercial and commercial. On one side, the non-
commercial core business of SABS conducted by
Standards South Africa (STANSA) is to develop,
maintain and disseminate standards; provide support
for regulatory services; support Presidential impera-
tives; provide research and development into standar-
dization, test methods and regulations; encourage the
design function through the Design Institute. On the
other, SABS offers commercial certification of prod-
ucts and processes; testing of power distribution
equipment, testing of coal and other minerals, testing
for a wide range of commodities for the protection of
consumers, and testing for vehicle exhaust emission
and other automotive related needs; regional and glob-
al conformity services and corporate services such as
human resources management, management informa-
tion systems, and events management.
2.3 Mine health and safety standards develop-
ment
South Africas economy is market oriented but
with a high capacity of governmental regulations. In
terms of the Standards Act of 1993, SABS is the only
agency in South Africa who develops, maintains and
disseminates national standards. In regard to technical
regulations on mine health and safety, if MHSI needs
to develop national technical standards, it should do so
through SABS with policy inputs by MHSI. SABS
will organize experts to provide technical support for
regulatory services. MHSI, mining enterprises and
other constituencies could appoint experts and tech-
nical staff to participate in the standard development
processes and activities. Chambers of commerce, trade
associations and social organizations can be involved
in a less extent.
Mining and mineral companies are free to devel-
op their own technical and management standard sys-
tems that meet and support the requirements of those
of higher and national levels.
South African national standards are developed
by Technical Committees (TC). TCs are composed of
experts from government agencies, standard users,
manufacturers, customers and other stakeholders. The
representatives from the sector of trade and industry
can also be invited to participate in the process of
Journal of Coal Science & Engineering (China)
standard development. Mining enterprises may decide
on whether to appoint experts to attend the TC activi-
ties of standard development at their own expenses.
The final decision as to which route to follow is
taken by the responsible committee. In general, the
drafting stages begin after a new work item proposal
has been approved by the Standards Approval Com-
mittee of STANSA. The approved proposal may be a
project for either a new standard or the revision of an
existing standard. The Standards Approval Committee
is also responsible for the approval of any new TC or
Subcommittee (SC). At present, there are more than
450 TCs and SCs under STANSA, about 5000 stan-
dards maintained by STANSA, and approximately 400
standards newly developed or revised annually.
In particular, there are about 20 mining and min-
erals related TCs or SCs, covering the fields of blast-
ing, ventilation, fire prevention, water hazard preven-
tion, and equipment.
SABS pays great attention to the adoption of in-
ternational standards. When a new standard project
comes under consideration, there are usually two al-
ternatives, either to adopt an existing international or
regional standard without change or to develop a
South African standard with at least some different
requirements. About half of the newly developed
standards are consistent with ISO/IEC standards and
20%~25% of the SANS standards are compatible with
international standards [2].
3 Characterization of the SA mine health
and safety standardization systems
SABS is in the process of transforming itself
from an inward looking organization to one which is
customer oriented, focused on service and representa-
tive of the demographics of the region within which it
operates. In particular, the mine health and safety
standardization system in South Africa can be charac-
terized as institutionally centralized, sector and cus-
tomer oriented, regulation and service hybrid, public
transparent and participated, WTO rules aligned, and
time dynamic.
(1) Institutionally centralized. Standardization ac-
tivities in South Africa are administered by SABS, a
statutory body established in terms of the Standards
Act as the national institution for the promotion and
maintenance of standardization and quality in connec-
tion with commodities and the rendering of services.
SABS is the only governmental agency in South Afri-
ca which develops, maintains and disseminates na-
tional standards with support for national mine health
and safety technical regulations. The core business of
standardization is conducted by STANSA and sup-
ported by the SA government. National standards are
designated as SANS. This institutional mechanism is
helpful for coordination of standards, validity of na-
LI Zhongxue, et al. Overview of the South African mine health and
tional standards, and avoidance of duplication, confu-
sion and conflict across various areas.
(2) Sector and customer oriented. Standardization
system in South Africa is customer oriented or demand
driven and standards are created in response to specif-
ic concerns and needs expressed by industry, govern-
ment, and consumers. And it is largely a voluntary
system in which both standards development and
compliance are driven by stakeholder needs. SABS
recently aligned its activities with seven different in-
dustry (including mining and minerals) sectors, each
housing the whole range of SABS services pertinent to
a particular industry. This change ensures easy access
to products, faster reaction and turnaround times, and
the creation of centers of knowledge excellence that
will be easily available to clients.
(3) Regulation and service hybrid. The Standards
Act governs all activities of SABS. SABS activities
(standards, regulation, commercial testing and certifi-
cation) were closely integrated until the late 1990s
when the Government started a process aimed at
bringing South African standards, quality, accredita-
tion and metrology practice in line with the require-
ments of the WTO agreement on Technical Barriers to
Trade (TBT). One of the requirements of the WTO
TBT is the separation of the functions of standards
production, legislation and regulation administration
from one another and especially from the commercial
activities of product testing and certification of quality
and systems. Currently, SABS Regulatory Affairs ad-
ministers its technical regulatory mandate via the ad-
ministration of compulsory specifications and com-
pulsory standards. Meanwhile, other SABS divisions
conduct the commercial activities of certification,
testing, and conformance services.
(4) Public transparent and participated. Public
transparency is one of the WTO TBT fundamental
principles. Technical regulations should be applied
only to correct market failures, and only when other
means of ensuring compliance fail. The decision to
regulate must be justified by risk and economics tak-
ing account of the costs of regulating. Public transpa-
rency and participation in the mine health and safety
standardization and regulations are achieved by
adopting existing international or regional standards
without change, by multi-stakeholder participation
such as in the tripartite MHSC, by publishing the pro-
posed legislation for public comment and debate, and
by advising fellow WTO members of new standards
and proposed technical regulations via a notification
mechanism.
(5) WTO rules aligned. The South African gov-
ernment has embarked on a process of reforming SA
333
technical regulations in line with WTO obligations and
guidelines based on the 5 essential building blocks for
an effective technical regulation, including legislation
specifying the desired outcome and administrative
procedures, defining the regulatory authority, specify-
ing conformity assessment requirements, and pre-
scribing sanctions for non-compliance; standards set-
ting out the desired characteristics to be made com-
pulsory; an authority or regulator appointed to admi-
nister or enforce compliance; means to assess com-
pliance by testing and auditing; and sanctions pre-
scribed in the legislation that can be enforced by the
regulator supported by legal processes.
(6) Time dynamic. Standardization activities in
South Africa are authorized by the Standards Act and
it has evolved for a nearly 60-year history with many
times of amendment. The last major revision of the
Act was in 1993. Rapidly evolving fields have re-
quirements that are far different from those of tradi-
tional manufacturers or highly regulated technologies.
With the new circumstances of standardization and
regulation in recent years, the South African standar-
dization system is kept dynamic and the South African
mine health and safety standards are revised about
every 5 years to ensure their adaptation to changes in
the economic and social environment.
4 Conclusions
This paper presents an overview of South Africas
mine health and safety standardization and regulation
systems, including the infrastructures of South African
mine health and safety standardization and regulation
and the characteristics of South Africas mine health
and safety standardization and regulation systems.
The South African mine health and safety stan-
dardization and regulation systems are characterized
as institutionally centralized, sector and customer
oriented, regulation and service hybrid, public trans-
parent and participated, WTO rules aligned, and time
dynamic. Those features of South Africas mine health
and safety standardization and regulation systems are
suggestive for the transformation and improvement of
mine health and safety standardization and regulation
systems in China or in similar situations.
References
[1] Schreiber W, Kielblock J. Self-contained self-rescuer leg-
islation within the context of the Mine Health and Safety
Act of South Africa: a critical analysis[J]. Journal of the
Mine Ventilation Society of South Africa, 2004, 57(4):
119-123.
[2] . [J]. , 2005(1): 69-
72.
An Yang. A summary of the standardization of South
Africa[J]. China Standardization, 2005(1): 69-72.