17 Feb 2014

In 2013, an annual performance review of the Environmental Community Occupational Health and Safety (ECOHS) programme highlighted the need to enhance wellness and incident prevention campaigns at Debswana Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines (OLDM).

As a result, OLDM general manager, Dr Adrian Gale on February 11 launched the Quantum Glide in Orapa. The Quantum Glide is a tool that is meant to promote and maintain safe and healthy working and living conditions for anyone who is likely to be affected by mining activities, including employees, contractors, visitors and members of the public. Dr Gale said OLDM has been working on the project for the past two years, and there is a visible and positive trend in key ECOHS performance indicators.

“It became apparent from our incident analysis reports that most are predominately caused by human factors like traffic violations, hand injuries from use of hand tools, oil spills and poor waste management practices,” said Dr Gale. He added that OLDM will now emphasise on creating and advocating for a cultural landscape that promotes great leadership in driving ECOHS programs.

He further said starting work late and inadequate risk assessment are some of the behaviours that inhibit ECOHS excellence as they impact negatively on the mine’s pursuit for zero harm. “We found that it was critical to come up with a campaign that will focus on leadership empowerment and drive cultural change towards a culture of positive behaviour and ownership,” said Dr Gale.

He explained that the Quantum Glide will stimulate focused strategies for incident prevention. Dr Gale said OLDM must constantly interrogate its processes and internal controls to ensure that that they are robust, responsive and resilient. “For us to arrive at our final destination of zero harm, we need to pull together and shape the future,” he said.

For his part, Safety and Sustainable Development Senior Manager, Mr George Sehunelo said the aim of the campaign is to provide valuable information to sensitise employees on the organisational commitment towards resilience by 2018.  

“Instilling an ECOHS mindset and encouraging desired behaviour among all employees and contractors is our priority,” he said. Mr Sehunelo further stressed that ECOHS is meant to improve capacity and behaviour change in order to embed a culture of excellence. Ends