Programme Director,

Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Hon. Judith Nemadzinga-Tshabalala

Inspector-General,

Senior Management of the Department,

Representatives of the Compensation Fund, Federated Employers Mutual Assurance, and Rand Mutual Assurance,

Representatives of Business Unity South Africa,

Leaders of organised labour: COSATU, FEDUSA, NACTU, and SAFTU,

Representatives of the International Labour Organization,

Distinguished regulators, inspectors, and professionals,

Our valued exhibitors and partners,

Our esteemed guests, South African workers, without whom our economy would collapse,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Afternoon.

Today, as we gather to commemorate the International Labour Organization's World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2026, we do so with a deep sense of reflection, responsibility, and renewed commitment. This occasion is not only a global observance, but it is also a solemn reminder of our collective duty to protect the lives, dignity, and well-being of every worker. We honour the workers who died with their boots on, those who suffered life-changing injuries in the workplace and those who continue to live with occupational diseases because of simply going to work to provide for their families. We honour their lives, their labour, and their dignity. Their memory must continue to guide our commitment to prevention, accountability, and justice in every workplace across our country.

This year, the ILO theme is: “Let's Ensure a Healthy Psychosocial Working Environment,". The theme compels us to confront a reality that has, for too long remained invisible. The veracity of the matter is, there are psychosocial risks in the workplace. Occupational health and safety is therefore not only about preventing physical injuries. It is also about protecting mental well-being, dignity, psychological safety, and the right of every worker to work in an environment free of violence, harassment, burnout, fear, and unnecessary suffering. For many years, occupational health and safety discussions focused mainly on visible hazards such as machinery, chemicals, falls, and physical injuries. While these remain critically important, we now recognise that some of the most serious workplace risks are often unseen stress, burnout, workplace violence, harassment, bullying, excessive workloads, poor leadership, job insecurity, income uncertainty, and organisational cultures that normalise fear and silence. These are not personal weaknesses. They are workplace hazards.

The newly released ILO Global Report on “The Psychosocial Working Environment" confirms the urgency of this challenge. For the first time, the ILO estimates that psychosocial risk factors are responsible for more than 840,000 deaths annually worldwide. These deaths are linked to cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders. These risks also result in nearly 45 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost every year and contribute to an estimated 1.37 per cent loss of global GDP annually. The report further reveals that 35 percent of workers globally work more than 48 hours per week, while 23 percent of workers have experienced violence or harassment during their working life, with psychological violence being the most prevalent at 18 percent. These are not abstract statistics, they represent exhausted workers, broken families, financial insecurity, mental distress, preventable illness, and lives lost unnecessarily.

A workplace cannot be considered safe if workers are protected from machinery but exposed to chronic stress. It cannot be considered healthy if chemical hazards are managed, but violence, harassment, and emotional exhaustion are ignored.  A workplace cannot be truly safe if it is psychologically unsafe. The psychosocial working environment is shaped by how work is designed, organised, and managed. Factors such as workload, working time, role clarity, leadership quality, autonomy, support, recognition, workplace justice, and participation directly affect workers' safety, health, dignity, and productivity. When these factors become harmful, they become psychosocial hazards.

Stress, workplace violence, bullying, harassment, discrimination, job insecurity, excessive workloads, low decision-making control, and poor organisational culture are not personal problems, they are workplace risks. If left unmanaged, they lead to depression, anxiety, burnout, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, absenteeism, workplace conflict, declining productivity, and long-term economic loss.

This is not only a health issue. It is a governance issue, a labour issue, a productivity issue, and fundamentally, a human rights issue.

We gather at a defining moment when, across the world and here in South Africa, workplaces are changing rapidly. Technology is evolving, work arrangements are shifting, new hazards are emerging, and traditional risks remain deeply entrenched. In this changing environment, our responsibility remains constant: to ensure that every worker returns home safe, healthy, and whole. This requires a human-centred approach to the world of work—one that places people, and not only productivity, at the centre of policy, workplace design, and economic development.

Decent work must be built on dignity, fairness, inclusion, and protection.

Occupational health and safety is therefore not merely a compliance issue.

It is a constitutional imperative.

It is a human rights issue.

It is an economic necessity.

And above all, it is a moral obligation.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa provides the strongest possible foundation for this commitment. Section 24 guarantees everyone the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being. Section 10 protects human dignity, and Section 23 guarantees fair labour practices. Together, these provisions place an undeniable obligation on the State, employers, and all social partners to ensure that workplaces are safe, healthy, and conducive to human flourishing.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act gives practical effect to these rights. Section 8 places a clear duty on every employer to provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a safe working environment and without risk to the health of employees. This includes identifying hazards, eliminating or mitigating risks, providing safe systems of work, preventing occupational diseases and injuries, and continuously improving workplace conditions.

This responsibility is not optional. It is the law.

South Africa's commitment is further reinforced by international labour standards. The ILO's recognition of a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental principle and right at work marked a historic global shift. It confirmed that health and safety at work must include the full spectrum of workplace risks, physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial.

Convention 155 requires member states to develop coherent national policies on occupational safety, occupational health, and the working environment. Convention 187 advances a preventative safety and health culture built on strong national systems and sustained institutional capacity. Convention 161 calls for occupational health services that prioritise prevention, surveillance, and adaptation of work to workers. Convention 190 recognises that violence and harassment have no place in the world of work, while Recommendation 206 provides practical guidance for prevention, protection, remedies, and dignity. These instruments remind us that psychosocial well-being is not a soft issue. It is a core occupational health and safety issue.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Ergonomics remains one of the most powerful, yet often underestimated, tools of prevention.

The Ergonomics Regulations of 2019 marked an important milestone in South Africa's occupational health and safety framework. They recognise that work must be designed to fit the worker, not the worker forced to fit into harmful working conditions. Ergonomics includes physical, cognitive, and organisational factors. It includes posture, repetitive movement, workstation design, fatigue, concentration, workload, decision-making pressure, and psychosocial stress.

Recent inspection data shows serious implementation gaps. Between October 2023 and November 2024 to February 2025, and again in April 2026, inspections were conducted to determine compliance with the Ergonomics Regulations. The findings remain concerning. Of the inspections conducted, only 32 per cent of employers in 2023, 35 per cent in 2025, and 31 per cent in 2026 had conducted ergonomics risk assessments as required by Regulation 6. This means that nearly seven out of ten employers are still operating without proper ergonomics and psychosocial risk identification.

Employee awareness also remains low, while medical surveillance compliance remains critically inadequate. The data further shows that while physical ergonomics factors are commonly considered, cognitive factors including psychosocial risks and organisational factors remain significantly under-assessed. This reveals an important implementation gap where psychosocial well-being is still not receiving the attention it requires.

Poor ergonomics and poor psychosocial environments lead to injury, fatigue, stress, low morale, absenteeism, compensation claims, burnout, and long-term disability. Good ergonomics improves health, morale, efficiency, and organisational performance.

The business case is therefore clear: Healthy workers build productive workplaces.

Our National OHS Strategy 2024–2029 provides a clear roadmap toward zero injuries and diseases. It calls for stronger labour inspection and enforcement, improved employer compliance, stronger worker participation, better occupational health services, stronger reporting systems, inclusion of psychosocial risks, and meaningful partnerships across government, labour, business, and academia.

No occupational health and safety system can succeed without genuine social dialogue.

Workers must have a voice.

Employers must lead responsibly.

Government must regulate fairly and enforce consistently.

Labour inspectors must be empowered.

Trade unions, employer organisations, professional bodies, and academic institutions must work together.  Occupational health and safety cannot be outsourced. It must be owned collectively.

Leadership in OHS is not demonstrated by policy statements alone. It is demonstrated by decisions when employers invest in prevention before accidents occur, when managers listen to workers, and when dignity is protected before harm happens.

We must move beyond compliance to commitment. Beyond minimum standards to a culture of excellence. Beyond reacting to incidents to preventing harm before it occurs. Work must be safe. It must be healthy. It must be dignified. It must be human-centred.

Psychosocial safety is not a soft issue. It is a hard requirement for sustainable productivity, economic resilience, and social justice. The true measure of leadership is not found in policy documents alone, but in whether workers feel safe when they arrive at work, respected while they perform their duties, and protected when they raise their voices.

A nation that protects its workers protects its future.

When we strengthen occupational health and safety, we strengthen families, communities, institutions, and the economy itself. Health and safety at work is therefore not only a labour issue, but also a nation-building imperative. It reflects the kind of society we choose to be: one where dignity is protected, justice is practical, and no life is treated as expendable.

Let us recommit ourselves to workplaces where dignity is protected, health is prioritised, and every worker matters.

Let us build a South Africa where prevention becomes culture, where occupational health and safety become leadership, and where decent work becomes a lived reality for all.

Let us ensure that workers return home not only physically safe, but mentally whole; not only employed but protected; not only productive, but treated with dignity.

Together, let us place occupational health and safety at the centre of sustainable development, decent work, social justice, and a just and inclusive economy.

I thank you.​

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