BUSINESS
Well-rounded
inclusivity is crucial
Surface and underground operations face different challenges when it comes to
accommodating women in the industry.
By Ntsako Khosa
Changing the gender disparity in mining is a concept that
Afrimat’s Letisha van der Berg believes is thoroughly accepted
but for which proper implementation has been long ignored.
T
he Mine Health and Safety
Council (MHSC) has extensively
researched gender issues in mining
and in particular the challenges faced
by women.
This research goes back to 2014
when Professor Lindiwe Zungu from
the University of South Africa (Unisa)
reported on her findings.
“All this research was conducted after
a female miner was raped and murdered
underground,” explains group safety,
www.quarryonline.co.za
health, environment and quality (SHEQ)
manager Letisha van den Berg.
Zungu’s research targeted about 200
women and the issues which surfaced
include PPE (personal protective
equipment), security and hygiene. Despite
the research identifying key challenges,
“we felt representation of research was
too small as it did not include the quarry
industry. There are an estimated 6 000
women in quarrying,” explains Van
den Berg.
In expanding the research target, the
Ukhozi and Marefong Women in Mining
committee sought to explore further the
needs of women in the industry.
“First we sent a questionnaire into
small-scale mines and even further into
the Marefong [underground operations]
and ukhosi [surface mining] tripartite,
to get more women involved. So far, we
have had 1 090 responses with just a few
mines outstanding. We’ve analysed 233
of those responses to uncover some of
the challenges from a small-scale mine
perspective,” she shares.
Challenges expressed
Van den Berg highlights the different
challenges facing surface and
underground mines and the challenges
that Zungu identified have been actioned
by some operations.
QUARRY SA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019_13