Story by Tafara Chikumira
Zimbabwe has recorded a 20 percent decline in work-related accidents over five years, owing to various government interventions.
Thid emerged during a three-day engineers’ workshop in Kwekwe.
National Social Security Authority (NSSA), acting chief executive officer, Dr Charles Shava said, “In previous seasons, we used to experience a high number of accidents and slow reaction to attend to such. We used to have at least 5 000 injuries-related accidents, and this has since been reduced to around 4 000 over the past five years.”
“I must say we have been educating even general staff on matters of safety and first aid. I am glad that we have a supportive system which has given us the green light to employ skilled staff to attend to critical issues and ensure safety at the workplace,” he said.
Government implored engineers to be thoughtful in coming up with innovations that address the current needs.
The Minister of Public Service Labour and Social Welfare, Honourable July Moyo said, “Our engineers are critical as we move to the future. Their structural designs must present enough safety nets for the workers. We want to move into the next century which is an upper middle-income society by 2030. We want to move to the next level using qualitative research. We want to create a skills pool which will help us go into the future as engineers.”
“We are humbled to host such a workshop. The workplace should not be associated with grief and loss of lives. It should be a source of joy for family and community as it shall bring about positive change in society. Engineers are critical in ensuring that this happens,” said Midlands Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Owen Ncube.
Issues of safety at the workplace have of late, taken centre stage with government crafting a raft of policy intervention measures, while NSSA is now targeting small to medium entrepreneurs and small-scale miners where safety measures are not being effectively enforced
