Efforts by the South African Chamber of Mines have been unsuccessful in improving the safety status quo regarding its safety plateau.

Recommendations to apply successful aerospace techniques to “mining” fell on deaf ears in order to institute an aggrandized “Minerals” inspectorate. The South African Government has no clear policy regarding safety and has openly instructed the manipulation of fatality records.

This problem cannot be solved by the people involved and will have to be addressed by the general public including other organizations because these problems are increasing and it is already affecting all of our lives; black male life expectancy recently fell to 42 years.

It is quite clear that there is a lack of honesty in strategy, operations and records regarding safety in South Africa. This dishonesty is costing us our lives.

However, some people have started to identify this dishonesty and have specifically made publicised statements in support of honesty as follows:

Deloitte & Touche -   Recommends establishing platforms for rigorous and open debate, which is valuable in the development of new ideas and insights into safety dilemmas (mining safety plateau).

New York Times: When you don’t call things by their real name, you always get in trouble (in the Middle-Eastern conflict by unnecessary putting soldiers in harms way)

Obama metrics for Afghanistan: Paragraph 3b.4: Demonstrable action by the government against corruption (and safety), resulting in increased trust and confidence of the Afghan public

General Motors: You have to bust the damned silos (incl. safety) to prevent dramatically rising operational costs.

Statistics South Africa: Knowing causes of death is crucial for planning.

Airline Industry Resolution: Criminal investigations interfere with prevention of aviation accidents.

The management of safety being addressed in the world is not just a South African thing. But when it comes to safety, keeping up with the Jones’s is not the right thing to do. Refer to Obama who is now quickly learning in Iraq and Afghanistan that their measure of safety and his, differs completely.

The reason they cannot seem to agree on it is because they are also dishonest and so are we. South Africa’s death rate is almost twice that of Europe. But judging by their actions, Government seems to think it is acceptable while the Zulu King does not agree because most HIV sufferers are Zulu’s, the largest tribe in South Africa.

To solve this dilemma, all we have to do is to be honest. If safety inspectors want more money, increase their capability accordingly. If manufacturers want to produce safer equipment, improve technical regulations.

It’s not that difficult because safety is a technical issue. The world aerospace industry has already proven that, honestly.