MHSC ANNUAL REPORT 2020

MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY COUNCIL ▪ ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20

2.1 AUDITOR’S REPORT: PREDETERMINED OBJECTIVES

The Auditor General South Africa currently performs the necessary audit procedures on the performance information to provide reasonable assurance in the form of an audit conclusion. The audit conclusion on the performance against predetermined objectives is included in the report to management, with material findings being reported under the Predetermined Objectives heading in the Report on other legal and regulatory requirements section of the auditor’s report. Refer to page 79 of the Report of the Auditors Report, published as Part E: Financial Information.

2.2 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

2.2.1 Service Delivery Environment The MHSC faced major challenges in the area of human resources at a strategic level during 2019/20 with the resignations of the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Human Capital Officer. There were other vacancies with the Research Unit which is the core of the MHSC. In some areas employees were identified to act in the positions and in some instances for longer than anticipated due to challenges in filling the vacancies. Due to the level of the vacant positions and also the technical nature of some of the positions there were several instances where the recruitment processes failed to secure the suitable incumbents. The organisational performance has unfortunately declined from the 98% during 2018/19 financial year to 84% in the 2019/20 financial year. The occurance of COVID 19 provided the MHSC with an additional challenge and opportunity. The challenge of addressing COVID 19 has resulted in the need for the review of the Annual Performance Plan for the 2020/21 financial year, which has been approved by Council. The opportunity for the MHSC arises as a result of the ability to return to previously completed research and utilising the studies to address COVID within the SAMI. This opportunity will see the MHSC able to enhance the implementation of its mandate and brand awareness. 2.2.2 Organisational environment The MHSC faced major challenges due to capacity constraints at the helm of the organisation with a vacancy of the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Human Capitol Officer. Whilst there were acting incumbents in the positions, the performance of the organisation was negatively impacted. The recruitment processes were expedited and the The world and South Africa faced the challenge of COVID 19 during the last quarter of the financial year. The government introduced a number of regulations to address the pandemic, which had an impact on the achievement of the mandate of the MHSC in the last quarter. Regulations issued in terms of Section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act COVID 19 has been identified as an emerging risk to the MHSC and will be fully analysed for the identification of mitigation actions during the MHSC Strategic risk profile review during April 2020. The initial assessment primarily focused on the operational environment and the mitigations are being implemented in line with the approval by Council. Public Finance Management Act, 1999: Exemption from Act and Regulations (Gazette 43188) The following was key from the gazette and communicated to all relevant MHSC officials: “Due to the national lockdown, institution are exempted, for the 2019/2020 financial year, from complying with the deadlines in— (a) sections 8(1)(b), 8(5), 19(1)(b), 19(5), 40(1)(c), 40(1)(d), 55(1)(c), 55(1)(d) and 65(2) of the Act meaning that submissions be made one month after the deadline in the applicable provision, which is now end of May 2020”. expectation is for the two executives to join the MHSC from April 2020. 2.2.3 Key policy developments and legislative changes

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“EVERY MINE WORKER RETURNING FROM WORK UNHARMED EVERYDAY”