Abstract:
This study discusses a legal analysis of the employer’s duty to provide a safe and
health working environment in the mining sector in South Africa. The employer’s duty
refers to the obligations and responsibilities which the employer has towards their
employees in the workplace. Employer must adopt reasonable and practicable
measures to ensure the safety and health of employees. Employer has a duty to
ensure that the mode in which employees conduct their work obligations is safe and
does not detrimentally affect their health. Safe and health working environment
entails that mine workers perform their work obligations free from harm, risks or
death. Sadly, in South Africa, the implementation, compliance, and enforcement of
this duty has been done on a slow pace, and there is need to accelerate it, to
mitigate the risks involved in the mining sector. The mining sector is a dangerous
workplace which requires strict compliance to health and safety standards.
Measures, policies, and legislation can curb safety and health in the mining sector.
This study will benefit the law, the government of South Africa and employers in the
mining sector to prioritize safety and health in the mining sector to mitigate harm and
fatalities in the mining sector.
