Africa-Press – Botswana. The annual Botswana Chamber of Mines Inter-mine First Aid Competitions are instrumental in contributing to high safety standards in the mining industry.
Jwaneng Mine senior mineral resources manager, Mr Emmanuel Boiteto, said this on behalf of the general manager at the Jwaneng Mine Inter-departmental First Aid competitions on Saturday.
Mr Boiteto said the competitions did not only indicate the commitment towards First Aid, but also promoted the adoption of best First Aid practices in the industry.
He said the competitions challenged industry players to improve their skills towards attaining zero harm in their operations.
“It is indeed our hope that as the competition becomes intense year on year, it raises the bar of excellence of First Aid practice across the mining industry,” he said. “This will hasten our efforts towards attaining zero harm in the mining sector.”
Mr Boiteto said these also resonated well with Debswana’s safety value, “Put Safety First,” through which the company demonstrated its commitment towards prioritizing safety for its employees and stakeholders.
He said through that value, Jwaneng Mine had deployed best safety processes and systems as a reassurance of creating a safe environment for all. Mr Boiteto said this year’s theme, “First Aid for Everyone, Everywhere”, was intended to implore and encourage individual contributions to respond to emergency situations to prevent injuries and possible loss of lives.
“Lessons learnt here should be applied to our daily work activities, at home and indeed on our roads,” he said. “It is important to practically demonstrate that we ‘Put Safety First’ at all times.”
Meanwhile, Mining and Project Management Office departments will represent Jwaneng Mine at this year’s Inter-mine First Aid competitions after they emerged the overall winners of the 13 participating teams, followed by Ore Processing and Health Services departments.
In an interview, Mining department team leader, Mr Moremi Dingalo, said even though they had prepared well for the competitions, they omitted some procedures and that resulted in minor mistakes in various stages of the competition.
He noted that going forward they intended to work harder to close such gaps as they prepare to face other teams at the national competitions.
“I have realised that we made some minor mistakes so we have to work very hard to correct them,” he added. “We need to work on clearing the area to eliminate hazards, as well as having constant checks on vital signs,” he said.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
