The Department of Labour (DoL) needs to extend coverage of the Compensation for occupational injuries and Diseases Act (Coida) and ensure it is implemented and enforced across the spectrum.
Deputy Director at Compensation Fund Chokola Lengolo said the DoL needs to collaborate with the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to ensure that Coida was implemented fully in mining, a sector which accounts for a large number of workers exposed to hazards.
Lengolo said some of the sectors that were not implementing Coida were iron and steel and agriculture. He said the fastest growing sector; the taxi industry was also reluctant to implement Coida. He said this conduct threatens the existence of the Fund.
The Fund has over 400 000 employers in its system and these account for about R5-billion in revenues. Employers are by law supposed to pay a once-off annual levy to the fund to cover for workers injured at work.
Lengolo said although there were good employers, there was a large number of companies that were not paying their levies for Coida purpose.
He lamented the lack of strict enforcement of Coida, saying even the Courts were not prosecuting Coida cases.
Lengolo was speaking at the DoL’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) conference aimed at improving workplace health and safety. The four-day conference is being held at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Boksburg under the theme: “Road to Zero”.
He said the Fund was faced with a number of challenges such as centralised processing systems, information technology weaknesses and huge paper trail.
With the Fund having embarked on the decentralisation by making its service available in the provinces, the Fund is expected to improve on its efficiencies.
Lengolo said he expects the introduction of the electronic systems, which he said would operate 24-hours the paper trail would be eliminated and efficiencies would be expected to improve.
The national OHS conference ends on Friday with a keynote address by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant, whose paper will focus on interventions to reduce injuries and diseases in South Africa.
Page Boikanyo
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DoL’s Chokola Lengolo wants COIDA to be strictly enforced
