Employers could enforce SA’s new sheq era in 2012
January 18th, 2012The biggest change in southern African health and safety education and practice in 60 years could start on January 19, 2012, when five construction and major hazard installation (MHI) employers form Buildsafe SA.
At first glance, I thought this initiative was a forum to exchange incident data and best practice recommendations, like the platinum mining Bushveld Safety Forum (BSF) based in Rustenburg, or the chemicals industry Process Safety Forum (PSF) based in Johannesburg and Durban.
But then I found the origin of Buildsafe SA to be in a major UAE training and qualifications standardisation lobby group of large employers, and I realised, or hoped, that construction and petrochemicals business would be taking the initiative to resolve the tired old impasse between education policy, education authorities, education service, 10 professional bodies, and three membership bodies.
My hope for a new era is probably not in vain. This initiative is led by big employers, in an industry known to get things done on schedule and within budget; Fluor, Murray & Roberts, Aveng Grinaker LTA, Sasol Technology and others.
If they do what needs to be done, Buildsafe SA would spell the end of the dreary sheq impasse as we know it, and the start of a new sheq era in southern Africa.
Long live construction and petrochem!
I feel like shouting from the rooftops. Long live construction, long live tripartite alliance, long live decent work, long live! Down with flawed education policy, down with corrupt Setas, down with third rate safety practice registration exams, down with self appointed institutes, down with charging for tickbox forms! Employers, of course, would be more diplomatic than using labour styled slogans.
And not a moment too soon, if construction and petrochemicals MHI employers are rising to the occasion as I hope they are. SA is at a low point in sheq education and practice.
Sheq research and education gap
SA universities are among the best in the world, but our sheq research is limited to construction safety surveys at Nelson Mandela Metro University in Port Elizabeth by Prof John Smallwood, and dwindling mining research co-ordinated by Simrac.
Some volunteer mining technology pilot projects are well planned and executed, but few of the resulting best practices find their way into general mining practice, or into sheq education and practice.
If few sheq innovations and standard practices have found their way into management, engineering, chemistry, logistics and other courses, perhaps the blame is on lack of sheq innovation, lack of consultation, as well as lack of education curriculi updates.
Education before self regulation
The DHET could be part of our much needed sheq education rescue. Who would have thought that a communist could be right about education? Yet Zimbabwe had kept its school education system virtually intact, and Russia entered capitalism with sufficient research and technology to fill the streets of Moscow with sports cars.
Comrade Dr Blade Nzimande is right to criticise professional bodies for the lack of fulfilling their roles in education, and merely waiting with rubber stamps for graduates to join up, pay up, sit their exams, register, and perpetuate ‘lame duck’ self regulation in the interest of elites.
Stop sheq brain drain
Our sheq executives, managers and supervisors rely as much on two week courses as our sheq practitioners do. Small wonder then, that top execs and board members are easily impressed and in thrall of educated consultants with well presented but flawed sheq systems, rigged sheq metrics, and flawed sheq slogans.
Our tertiary sheq diploma and degree courses are few and far between, new, or poorly marketed, while the Unisa Nadsam diploma and BTech degree are being phased out.
Sheq training at basic levels, up to two week courses, is standardised, registered, and training service supply is very competitive. Industry supports basic training well, but this bare minimum is not enough to keep our high hazard and high risk mines, manufacturers, petrochem, energy, logistics, construction, and even our retail and SMMEs, running safely.
Calls for ‘zero harm’ ring hollow while leading sheq research and education remains imported services. The gap between two week courses, partly relevant diplomas, and sheq degrees, is just a bridge too far. Construction is known for bridging. I hope, ask and plead with employers in every sector to resolve the sheq education impasse.
Education policy change
The SA Department of Higher Education and Training green paper on post-school education summarises several challenges in education, and lists global online education as one of the solutions. However, international education could not save sheq education, since our legislation, standardisation, conditions, work culture and multicultural workplaces differ too much from the English speaking world in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.
Most leading sheq practitioners escape the southern African sheq education and professional crunch by training and registering with professional bodies overseas, but that is too expensive to tip the scales against our huge education and training backlog among sheq representatives, officials, practitioners and even some executives. We need local sheq education and international sheq registration.
SA sheq eras perspective
The last big change in health and safety in southern Africa is already history. Nosa was formed about 60 years ago and led a series of improvements in occupational health and safety, based on imported research, until the behaviour based safety (BBS), enviro, sustainability and corporate governance era gave the initiative to other trainers, consultants, and overseas consultants in about 2005.
Fundamental imported health and safety research by Heinrich, slavishly followed by Bird and others, is now, belatedly, shown to be false, taking even many overseas sheq practitioners by surprise.
The SA ‘zero harm’ era from about 2005 to 2011 had made little impact on sheq performance or culture, but some mining health and safety training initiatives are brewing in the MQA, an entity of the mining employer organisation, Chamber of Mines.
In mining too, my hopes for sheq education is pinned on a business body overriding political, government, state and legislative constraints and impasses.
A new sheq era could dawn this year, driven by employers dictating economic needs to the state, authorities, universities, and professions. It could be a sheq corporate culture era, or sheq skills era, or employer driven era, or adopt no label at all. Either way, long live the new SA sheq era of 2012!
• Edmond Furter is a qualified internal environmental management auditor, trade media specialist, and editor of Sheqafrica.com.
