In the stope that crews are sufficiently resourced and what these crews require to guarantee safe production.
Has the workforce changed over the past few years?
Yes. There is a new or millennial generation of miners that is totally different from the older generation in terms of education and how they look at and perceive mining. They have many ambitions, and this requires a unique way of managing them and creating opportunities for upward mobility.
These millennial miners are technology savvy, and they are very particular about how they are managed and how they should be led by their superiors. So, the book touches on change management as well.
In the book, you talk about a concept called‘ planisa’. Can you explain what it is?
Yes, planisa is an interesting concept. It is a mining lingua franca or pidgin derived from the Afrikaans saying‘‘ n Boer maak‘ n plan’( to make a plan). Planisa is triggered by a number of work circumstances.
Workers and production teams have monthly targets to meet. For example, if they blast a certain number of metres and they exceed those targets, they qualify for a bonus in addition to their monthly salary. The bonus scheme is structured. It has parameters of productivity, safety, production efficiency in terms of sweeping the broken ore into the ore
Leon Louw
Dr Sizwe Phakathi, head safety and sustainable development at the Chamber of Mines.
bins, and all the other actions. When a person is injured, there are penalties in terms of the amount the teams will be paid at the end of the month. Planisa will happen in circumstances when, for instance, the team runs short of material. It may be something that they cannot control, like a delay in the delivery of timber packs to support the hanging wall in the stope.
So, the workers make a plan— they might even steal another team’ s timber packs, or they negotiate some form of informal arrangement in adjacent working stations or panels. Sometimes the team would use wire to fix a broken winch because there were no nuts and bolts, which obviously had safety implications. The workers improvise to restore production, and if they get it right, they are regarded as heroes by their seniors. But planisa is a double-edged sword because of the safety aspects.
If planisa results in some form of injury or fatality, then the workers are blamed and penalised, even if it is not always their fault— there is production pressure, a desire to meet production targets, and the lure of a production bonus. Planisa can be the result of poor planning by supervisors or senior management. Overall, planisa is an innovative strategy, but that being said, the unsafe aspects of the concept have to be eliminated.
You compare the South African safety statistics with those in other mining jurisdictions like Australia, Canada, and the US. How do we compare?
The South African fatality rate is still very high. Last year, for the first time in 10 years, the industry actually regressed in terms of fatalities, and that is disappointing. Nonetheless, we are making progress, despite
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