Africa-Press – Botswana. Orapa Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines (OLDM) have dedicated to continuously seeking innovative ideas that would make their mines safe for employees.
OLDM general manager, Mr Mogakolodi Maoketsa said this at the quad zero commemoration held in Orapa recently, noting that the mine leadership was committed to taking necessary steps guided by the mines, quarries, works and machineries regulations to protect those working in their operations.
“It is against this commitment that we developed and packaged quad zero initiative,” he said.
For the past three years he said they implemented a safety behaviour and cultural enhancement initiative aimed at achieving zero injuries, zero pollution, zero damages, and zero occupational illnesses.
Mr Maoketsa said the initiative was focused on seven key areas being ownership and accountability, culture change, psychosocial safety, capability development, rewards and motivation among others.
He said the company’s investment in a people based safety framework, was a stepping stone for fostering development of soft skills by capacitating employees to lead fulfilling lives whilst contributing positively to their collective growth at work and beyond.
He said they were proud to share that from their ambitious target of 0.11 TRIFR (Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate) last year they achieved a remarkable 0.07 by end of year.
Mr Maoketsa said improved performance was consistent for the past five years.
He said in the company’s commitment to saving lives, as year 2024 began safety performance measurement was upgraded to all injury free frequency rate.
The vision, he said, was to eliminate all injuries and to evolve into an all injury free organisation.
“It is disheartening that we fell short of this measure last year, ending with a rate of 0.41 against a target of 0.40. This meant that while one of us returned home safe, another did not and that weighs heavily on us defeating and frustrating our efforts to zero harm,” he said.
Mr Maoketsa said they had drawn conclusions from stakeholders’ insights, indicating that production always took precedence in practice.
He said even though safety was prioritised, employees feared repercussions for reporting incidents and business partners reported majority of welfare issues which included delays in payments and lack of supervision.
OLDM leadership, he said, had committed to assessing and embedding ownership, accountability and recognition through safety protocols while prioritising the fundamentals of Environment Community and Occupational Health and Safety programme and improve psychological safety.
Acting senior safety and sustainable development manager, Mr Kagiso Mogocha said safety was not merely a set of rules, standards and guidelines, but a culture demanding daily attention and commitment.
Mr Mogocha said Quad Zero was commissioned in 2022 with an intent to influence “true scratch free production and zero loss of lives through four zeros,” which is zero illness, zero injuries, zero property damage and zero environmental damage.
He said the primary goal was to establish a sustainable safety culture that would not protect workers only, but also the equipment and the environment.
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