Safety performance

We are committed to providing and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment for all our employees and contractors. On this basis, the elimination of all safety-related incidents in Eskom operations remains a focal point of our safety improvement drive. Despite significant efforts, our occupational health and safety performance remains poor. Accidents still occur, affecting not only our employees and contractors, but also members of the public and their families. We deeply regret the tragic loss of life.

Safety performance

• we lost 17 employees this financial year – this was a major blow to the organisation. There were eight employee fatalities in 2007. Of the 17 fatalities, eight were attributed to motor vehicle accidents, five to electrical contacts, two to falls from heights, and one each to a gunshot and a tractor accident. Of the eight fatalities due to vehicle accidents, seven were caused by third parties
• the build programme and normal maintenance challenges are putting a lot of pressure on staff and contractors. We also lost 12 contractors this financial year compared to 18 in 2007. Four of the fatalities were attributed to vehicle accidents, four to falls, two from falling objects, one to an electrical contact incident and one crushed by a foreign object
• sadly, 42 members of the public died in 2008 (2007: 41) with vehicle accidents and electrical contacts remaining the major causes. A massive public safety campaign is addressing this

This performance is totally unacceptable, and continued focus is required in terms of enhancing safety training and awareness, skills and competency, supervision and operational discipline.

Safety performance	Unit of  measure	Actual  2008	Actual  2007
Employee safety
Total fatalities	number	1	8
Electrical contact fatalities	number	5	4
Vehicle accident fatalities	number	8	3
Other fatalities	number	4	1
Lost-time incident rate, including occupational diseases	index	0,34	0,35
Electrical contact injuries	number	25	30
Contractor safety
Total contractor fatalities	number	12	18
Electrical contact fatalities	number	1	1
Other fatalities	number	11	17
Public safety
Total public fatalities	number	42	41
Electrical contact fatalities	number	32	27
Fatalities from other causes	number	10	14

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