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Aspasa/Sarma committed to the future of the industry The last quarter has been a demanding one for Aspasa and Sar-

ma, with strategic planning sessions held for both organisations

over a two-day period in mid-July, as well as regional meetings

around the country; and last but not least, a mutually beneficial

meeting with the Chief Inspector of Mines. Dale Kelly writes:

atural aggregate is one of the nation's most poorly

understood resources, and the continuous work done

by Aspasa/Sarma in promoting an environmentally

sound and sustainable industry is often not truly understood

by the industries it serves.

The strategic planning meetings were held in mid-July

with the first session for Sarma taking place on Friday 15

July, followed by the Aspasa meeting the following day. The

meetings were extremely well attended on both days with the

agenda prepared long before the event took place. Prior to

the meeting, a survey had been sent out asking the industry

to highlight the challenges it wanted to discuss, and this was

followed by a meeting with an outside facilitatorto highlight

the issues raised by the industry.

Beneficiation/transformation was on the agenda;together

with legal; training and education; standards and accredita-

tion; influencers, stakeholders and the image of industry; and

growth of sustainability.

"We covered a lot of documentation in the strategic plan-

ning sessions," says Aspasa/Sarma director Nico Pienaar. "In

the two days that this was held, the attendees broke up into

groups and prioritised the challenges facing the industry."

Discussing the strategic challenges over the two days,

Table 1: Prioritisation of strategic challenges.

Pienaar says that what was incredible was the fact that in

the two sessions held on different days, training was the first

priority for both Sarma and Aspasa.

Sarma priorities

"For Sarma, we are going to have to talk to the training provid-

ers for readymix," Pienaar says. Standards and accreditation,

which are the audits and standards for readymix, came up

as the second point for Sarma, followed by the image of the

industry, legal issues, growth and sustainability and finally,

structural issues.

Aspasa priorities

For Aspasa, the second priority was influences, stakeholders

and the image of industry. "There is a lot of work to be done

there," he says. "Legal issues came in third, with growth and

stability coming in at No 6, while structural issues at No 7,

is something that will have to be discussed at the Aspasa

Mancom."

Other issues up for discussion by both the Mancoms

include: Hosting an Aspasa/Sarma conference, inviting stakehold-

ers, eg, SANRAL, consulting engineers, DMR, ere, with pos-

sible breakaway sessions. UKtraining modules forquarrying.There is a lot of excellent

material available in these e-learning programmes, and a

decision needs to be made on what material is usable, and

what can be adapted to South African standards. Review equity holding and employment equity status of

Aspasa members, and publicise and market this by sharing

success stories.

Set up regional projects led by Aspasa,and the DMR struc-

ture for channeling of SLP activities.

Review standards/specifications - chal- lenge status quo before SABS releases new

standards.The SABS is changing to European

standards, which could be either good or

bad for the industry.

How to encourage new members to join.

Appearance of motor vehicles. This could

cover the spillage on roads which seems to

be on the increase in Gauteng particularly.

What was of particular interest to Modern Quar-

rying, is the recently-held meeting between

--._---- -- --- - - Sarma Aspasa

-- - 1. Training and education 1. Training and education

2. Standards and accreditation 2. Influences, stakeholders and image

3.lmage of industry/external stakeholders 3. Legal issues

4. Legal issues 4. Beneficiation/transformation

5. Growth and sustainability 5. Stakeholders and accreditation

6. Structural issues 6. Growth and sustainability

7. Structural issues

N

2. 3.

Aspasa and the then Acting Chief Inspector of Mines, David

Msiza (who has subsequently been appointed to the post).

Attendance by industry representatives was excellent with

members from the KZN, North East, Mpumalanga, and Lim-

popo regions, and as far afield as the Transkei. Companies

included Afrimat, Lafarge Cement/RMC, WG Wearne, AfriSam,

Clay Brick Association,ACMp, Drift Supersand, Rietspruit Crush-

ers, 3Q Concrete and Transkei Quarries.

"We combined our representation with Aspasa and the

Clay Brick Association, and the ACMp, and this was chaired by

Avi Bhoora, the Aspasa chairperson," Pienaar says."We had a

preparation meeting the day before our discussion with the

Chief Inspector, who was extremely receptive to our concerns."

The Aspasa chairperson opened up the meeting by saying

that the industry body attendees represented infrastructure

building which, although in mining, are different to that of

gold, platinum, diamonds and coal mining."And I think that

the DMR agrees with us.We then asked the Chief Inspector of

Mines what the DMR requires us to focus on, and one of the

first comments made was that we have to appoint competent

managers, and we agree with that.

"We can't appoint managers who don't understand our

health and safety and environmental legislation. We have to

appoint competent managers and this could be regulated in

the future. In mines, one has to have a certified manager, but

in quarries, this requirement is not yet compulsory in South

Africa, while it is in European countries.

"Blasting is also a problem,"Pienaar says,"and this is some-

thing we need to resolve as an industry. Our industry bodies

also need to assist in sorting out health and safety issues. If

there is a constant problem, we need to assist in sending out

circulars and do training." He cites machine guarding and

transport issues as a major focus, because people are still

being injured, or even worse, killed.

The Mining Charter requires a health and safety focus.and

Aspasa's health and safety audit is doing well in this regard.

"We need to take communities into consideration, and also,

industry bodies need to assist with skills development. We, as

an industry, need to sit down and discuss how we are going

to improve on this, and create a

culture of caring for our work-

ers and communitie's that are

sustainable."

. Another important point

raised was that industry needs

to discuss and resolve Section

54s in the regions, firstly with

the Principle Inspector and

then escalate this to the Chief

Inspector, if necessary."We need

to create healthy relationships

with our inspectors and move

from somewhat of a negative

handling of Section 54s, to a

more positive one,"Pienaar says.

"We also need to focus on

becoming more health and

safety conscious. The Chief Inspector explained that he gets

called to parliament, where he has to answer for the fact

that investors are not keen to do business in the country,

due to our safety statistics. The perception is that the mining

industry kills people in South Africa, and the way the public

has reacted to certain mining licences, particularly recently in

the coal industry, has impacted on the Department as welL"

Aspasa members have been very fortunate in that the ISHE

audit protocol focuses on mining legal requirements and best

practices for the industry.

Industry must ensure that accurate figures are submitted

to the Department, such as dust monitoring, for example.

"There are people that come around and charge a lot of

money to do the dust monitoring, who firstly are not qualified,

and secondly don't do it properly. Causes of deaths must be

addressed, and often the same problems are repeated again

and again, with a focus on the trackless mobile problem.

"Occupational hygienists must be qualified. Check to see

if the person or company you are employing is qualified.You

are not going to take medication from an unqualified GP, so

why use the services of an incompetent hygienist?" Pienaar

--:,:

/

32

. :". - .. ~.:"""'= ~

Effective machine guarding is a bugbear of the Aspasa ISHE auditor. All reach-

able pulleys must be equipped with effective guards, which means that a

person must not be able to reach to any nip point between the pulley and the -

belt of the installation.

asks."COPs need to be done properly and employee records

must be available at the point of the mining licence."

Medical contractors often don't put the name of the quarry

on their submissions, which causes problems for the DMR.

They must use the operation's details and not only their own,

as they are not the mining licence holder. On illegal mining,

this must be reported to the regional offices. "We are doing

that and it is working well," he says. "We have closed down

quite a few operations in the Free State already. We need

'whistle blowers' and Aspasa is available in this regard.

"On the engineers per quarry issue, we must talk to the

Principle Inspector,and apply for exemptions, if necessary. For

confined spaces, do a risk assessment and then decide. Mine

residue needs to be explained to the Principal Inspector, and

a decision taken." Pienaar says the Aspasa ISHE audit is seen

as a leading practice, and members must ensure that inspec-

tors are invited to attend the audits and regional meetings.

"In turn, the DMR will meet with industry on a regular basis,

also in the various regions, where we can sit down and discuss

the problems we may be experiencing. Legal prosecutions

will start taking place and it is important to understand that

to date, people haven't been prosecuted for not abiding by

the legislation.

"The DMR will work on consistency and transparency in

industry and safe mining. What we said here, is that there

is sometimes a different ihterpretation in the regions. The

inspectors will use the same template when doing inspec-

tions as a guideline, and we must keep to the slogan 'mine

safely or stop mining'. Another complaint was that inspectors

sometimesmake appointments and don't keep them.we have

been asked to report this to the DMR.

"MHSC will deal with the engineers and the 2 500 kW issue,

and the DMR will let us have their regular newsletters and

keep us informed of other important concerns. The Depart-

ment will also ask regional offices to arrange regional forum

meetings and invite the various associations.

"All in all,a very positive meeting with the Chief Inspector,

who was impressed with us because we are doing something

positive as an industry body. We try and self-regulate our

industry, so that we have a clean image. It is no use pointing

fingers if your own house in not in order, and we are saying

that we must do this, and much more," Pienaar says.

Regional meetings

This year's regional meetings have been the biggest success

that Aspasa/Sarma has ever had.There are six regions in which

the two organisations operate, and due to various reasons, it

was decided to combine the Gauteng, North East and Free

State regional meeting, which meant that this year, there were

only four regional meetings. This year, the meetings took the

form of workshops, with papers presented by various speakers

~CU5

and discussion and questions were encouraged.

The Eastern Cape meeting on 19 August was well attended,

with the main sponsor being PPC combined with Sika's usual

support. Professor Piet Naude from the Nelson Mandela Uni-

versity dealt with the subject of business intelligence in the

21 st century, and covered the world in which we work and live,

highlighting the following:

Leaders must acquire global intelligence as we live in a

global village.

Leaders also require ecological intelligence broken up into

various issues, such as economic, social and environment .

The economic issue again to be broken into financial,

infrastructure and human issues.

The leadership needs to focus on ethical intelligence (trust

and ethics) and also leadership requires imaginative intel-

ligence.

Pienaar provided feedback on the issues discussed at the

strategic session as well as feedback on the meeting with

the Chief Inspector of Mines; the C&CI's Petrus Jooste gave

a comprehensive presentation on available concrete and

readymix training; and Greg Steele from Master Builders As-

sociation in the Eastern Cape,did a presentation on the state

of the building industry in the region, taking all the possible

influences into consideration.

Andrew Crickmay from Crickmay Associates explained self

regulation of fleets and gave case studies of how the timber

and sugar cane industries in KZN had overcome the issue of

overloading, thereby reducing fines and wear and tear on

vehicles; and Richard Tomes from PPC gave a comprehensive

report on the future of cement in SA, some of the problems

experienced and the threats affecting the industry. Finally

Sarma Shreq auditor, Pieter du Preez, explained how the audit

process worked and what is important and focused upon. One

of the problem areas raised was that of the credit facilities and

misuse of some clients in getting credit.

This meeting was also well attended by DMR officials.

The Western Cape meeting was held at the Two Oceans

Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront, with the main sponsor be-

ing AfriSam,and eo-supported by Sika.Again, the attendance

was exceptional.

Sanral's Kobus van der Wait gave an excellent talk on ag-

gregate requirements in the Western and Northern Cape. He

said that due to the legislative requirements to 'mine; Sanral

would prefer to use established quarries. Advocate Gesie van

Deventer, the Executive Mayor of Drakenstein in the Western

Cape, stressed the issue of the upliftmentof communities and

that the town needed to be claimed back from those who

have run these communities down. What was needed was

clever thinking, making towns attractive and neat people

must want to stay in them, and in so doing, creating honest

jobs and dealing with community projects. She said, at the

4. 5. 6.

end of the day, housing is needed for people to have value

in themselves and in their communities.

Again the Aspasa/Sarma director gave a short feedback;

followed by PPCs Justin Meth's informative presentation on

empowering and upliftment of communities, which tied in

with Advocate van Deventer's thinking. PetrusJooste from the

C&CI spoke about training; and BEE Verification specialist Dr

Willem Mostert, covered the impacts on industry seen from

the Amended Mining Charter.This was followed by presenta-

tions from Andrew Crickmay and Pieter du Preez.

The Gauteng meeting on 2 September, was hosted by

Afrimat's Glen Douglas and again Sika was on board, with

excellent attendance from members in the region.

Letisha van den Berg from AfriSam gave a very compre-

hensive talk on health and safety best practices within her

company, showing what is being measured. Dr Willem Mostert

took delegates through the scorecard from the Broad-Based

Socio Economic Empowerment Charter for the South African

mining industry, explaining the way calculations worked in

terms of Government Gazette, 20 September 2010.

Justin Meth once again presented his empowering/uplift-

ing of communities, the PPC way; and the Concrete Society's

John Sheath gave a talk on the Concrete Society, how it fits

into the industry and its role in developing the individual in

the concrete industry. Individuals were encouraged to join

the Concrete Society.

The KZN regional on 8 September was a sell-out. The

meeting was held at Desmond Equipment (Dezzl) in Port

Shepstone, with Dezzi being the main sponsor with the usual

support from Sika. A factory tour through the high-tech Dezzi

factory was the highlight of the day. Aspasa/Sarma director

Nico Pienaar reported back on the recently-held strategic

planning meeting, and discussed in some detail, how the

Aspasa/Sarma organisation is run. What was particularly

interesting for all, was his feedback on the meeting with the

Chief Inspector of Mines.

KZN chairperson, Piet de Wet from Afrimat welcomed all

and thanked everybody for attending; with John Roxburgh

from C&CI outlining the training available from his organisa-

tion. Andrew Crickmay again explained self-regulation on

road transport; and Dennis Rae from the DMR did a detailed

talk on mine surveying and quarry outlays which resulted in

much discussion. Ron Stroebel from Dezzi gave an introduc-

tion to the Dezzi factory and product range, before delegates

were taken on a comprehensive factory tour.Thanks must go

to Dezzi for the excellent facilities and catering for the day.

This was unexpected and much appreciated. It was also great

to see the support from the DMR in this region.

About Face audit

This audit will run in 2012 and the document has undergone

. ............................................................................ 33

a major revamp. It will be available soon for Aspasa members

to peruse.

ISHE audit At the time of writing, Aspasa was revising the ISHE audit

document. However, over the last few months, it has come

across some issues regarding conveyor belt installations that

it seems the industry does not totally understand. Pienaar has

given MQ the following notice issued by the DMR:

Notice of orders and instructions in terms of Section 54

(1) and 55 (1) of the Mine Health and Safety Act (Act 29

o9f 1996) - Conveyor Belt Installations 'In terms of the above-mentioned Section, if an Inspector has

reason to believe that any condition at a mine endangers or

may endanger the health and safety of any person at a mine,

the Inspector may give any instruction necessary to protect

the health or safety of persons at the mine.

In view of the above and the fact that numerous serious

conveyor belt installation accidents recently occurred within

the region, you are hereby instructed to comply with the fol-

lowing instructions:

7. All reachable pulleys must be equipped with effective

guards which means that a person must not be able to

reach to any nip point between the pulley and the belt of

the installation.

8. These guards must be secured by at least bolts and nuts

and at leasta tool must be used to loosen it.

9. Inspection openings in guards must be closed and properly

secured when not in use. 1. Trip wires must stretch over the full length of the installa-

tion where access to the belt is possible. This means that

it must stretch from at least tail to head pulley guards, on

both sites of the installation if access is possible. Instal-

lations that are elevated must be equipped with these , ,

c::./:.. .;'...J '- :_1 -> '- '\.. ....•.... _

.............................................................................................................................................................. .

10.

11.

devices up to a height where a person can

reach and over the full length of the walkway

side.

S. An automatic, audible alarm must sound for

at least 10 seconds before any conveyor belt

can be started. This means that the electric

wiring must be such that a person cannot fail

to comply with the 10 second time interval

and that if a conveyor belt has not been

started within 30 seconds after the alarm has

sounded, that it would be impossible to start

that belt if the alarm had not been re-used.

6. The lock-out procedure must be very clear

on WHO, WHERE, HOW and WHEN an instal-

lation must be locked out. There must be

no confusion on whose responsibility it is,

exactly where, how and when the locking-out

must be done. It must also be very clear on

whose responsibility it is to ensure that all

persons are safe and that all safety devices

are in place and in working condition before

unlocking and energising of the installation is

done. Include the requirements of Regulation

8.9.1 (a) that stipulates that the power supply

of a stationery conveyor belt installation must

be locked out during repairs, maintenance,

routine cleaning and cleaning of spillage.

Train all responsible persons in the require-

ments of this procedure.

7. A weekly checklist must be drawn up and

used by competent persons to ensure the

operation and effectiveness of all safety de-

vices. Safety devices that must be included

on this list must, at least, include but is not

limited to:

a) The lock-out facility

b) Pull wires and switches

cl Audible alarms - 10 second automatic

time delay

d) Guards - effective and well secured

e) Sequence interlocking

f) Illumination

Please note that the testing of pull wires and

switches must be done physically and that it

must be pulled at the further point from the

switch to test the strength of the wire or any

connections.

You are further instructed to ensure fun com-

pliance with the requirements of Mine Health

and Safety Act Regulations 8.9(1) to 8.9(10) for

conveyor belt installations.

The Regulations The requirements of machine

guarding as stipulated in Reg.

8.8:

1. An effective physical barrier

at the machine;

2. A failsafe electric or elec-

tronic device that will stop

the machine - interlocked;

3. An effective physical barrier

away from the machine. At least one of these shall be

used, you can use a combina-

tion depending on the requirements established

through your risk assessment:

"Any operation that has queries should consult

the Principal Inspector in the region, for a final

view on what is acceptable," Pienaar urges.

"It is clear that there is a need for commitment

and priorities for the success of our industry.The

construction industry remains challenged and

the market has been at its lowest in many years.

The attitude of 'business as usual' has changed

and new ways ofthinking and doing are needed.

"Competition legislation has caused a seri-

ous drift among roleplayers in the industry,

but companies should not view one another as

merely competitors, but rather as partners with

a common view of getting through the hard

times and working together; so that when the

economy turns, We have the support of a well

structured industry."

He says the issues that should remain in the

minds of those committed to the industry, is to

maintain the focus on quality products,excellent

customer service, good relations with employees

at all levels and to do what we do with integrity.

"The industries represented by Aspasa and Sar-

ma, play a vital role in the national economy and

infrastructure development. We need to keep

working hard to ensure that we have structures

in place so that when the boom comes, we are

more than ready," he adds. MQ

I

P.S;J3Sa and Sa~"fn.a ~n focus ............................... ,

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