'Number of work accidents must be reduced,' says Goche

The number of deaths and serious accidents at work are a cause for concern and must be significantly reduced, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche said on Wednesday.

Opening this year's National Conference on Safety and Health at Work (SHAW) at the Rainbow Towers in Harare, he said the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) had this year already recorded 49 deaths at work and 3 641 serious work-related injuries.

Last year over the same period it recorded 63 workplace deaths and 3 218 serious work injuries.

"These statistics are a cause for concern and must be significantly lowered. This calls for a process to properly profile and analyse incidents that cause these injuries and fatalities, if we are to arrest this undesirable trend," he said.

He said safety and health should be cherished and carefully nurtured by all progressive Zimbabweans.

 "There is an urgent need to redouble our efforts to realise zero harm, zero accidents and ultimately zero deaths in our workplaces," he said.

He went on to challenge conference participants to reflect on what they could do to contribute to achieving zero harm at their workplaces.

"Zero harm is achievable but it requires you and me to work earnestly towards achieving it," he said.

Minister Goche acknowledged the importance of the SHAW conference in ensuring the safety and health of Zimbabwe's labour force.

This year's conference was, he said, taking place at a time when there was a heightened need to undertake labour reforms.

He said his ministry was working on finalising the Occupational Safety and Health Bill, which, once it became law, should significantly and positively influence the course of occupational safety and health in Zimbabwe.

"We expect to see a positive change in the culture, the attitude and perceptions on safety and health in our country," he said, adding that his ministry was also nearing completion of a long overdue new occupational safety and health policy.

"We need an occupational safety and health policy that is proactive and not reactive. The policy must also be able to keep pace with the dynamic world of safety and health,' he said.

He said his ministry was working on benchmarking Zimbabwean laws with international best practice.

It was exploring opportunities for the ratification of ILO Convention 187: The Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health.

"We will accelerate this process because of its objective to preserve the health of our workforce," he said.

These policy measures went a long way in fighting the scourge of occupational accidents and diseases, he said.

"Safety begins with all of us here," the minister said, before declaring the conference officially opened.   

The SHAW conference is held annually over three days.  The theme of this year's conference is 'Promoting a Preventive Culture for Occupational Accidents and Diseases'.

Welcoming delegates to the conference, NSSA general manager James Matiza emphasised the importance of a preventive culture in "taming the scourge of accidents and diseases at workplaces".

"The question to pose to ourselves today is: 'Do our organisations have a preventive culture with regard to accidents?', he said, adding that, as a regulatory authority,  NSSA expected an emphatic yes to this question from captains of industry.

"We strive to see a preventive culture being upheld in industry. Let us desist from the syndrome of business as usual in our organisations. We must have a paradigm shift from maximum production in our factories to safe production.

"Let us all embrace a culture of zero tolerance to accidents and diseases at work," Mr Matiza said.