Department of Employment and Labour's Senior Specialist: Occupational Health and Safety, Bulelwa Huna, told the Occupational Health and Safety Conference: 2026, on its second day, that young workers are the future of the workplace and therefore they need to be protected.

According to Huna, the vulnerability of young workers is aggravated by their limited work experience, low awareness of hazards, insufficient training and supervision, as well as higher-risk entry-level jobs.

Huna told the gathering that the mitigation factors present themselves in various ways, including difficulty in recognising dangerous situations; unsure how to perform tasks safely; lack of knowledge on how to avoid risks; fear of reporting issues because they are worried that they may lose their jobs or upset their supervisors; as well as pressure to prove themselves thus rushing to complete the task. 

“To protect our young workers, we need to go beyond regulatory compliance and implement occupational health and safety policies in daily practices," Huna said.

She reminded the conference that there are laws and regulations that protect young workers, such as the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Ergonomics Regulations (2019), Hazardous Chemical Agents Regulation (2021), and Noise and Physical Agents Regulations (2025). 

“Protecting young workers requires considering workplace hazards, work tasks and conditions, training and supervision, and organisational culture.

“Only by examining the complete system can employers and regulators create workplaces where young workers are safe, healthy, and able to develop their skills," she concluded.

Phumudzo Maphaha, Senior Specialist: Occupational Health and Safety, specialising in Construction, Explosives and Major Hazard Installations (MHI), highlighted causes of construction incidents. According to Maphaha, there are two factors that lead to incidents in construction being lack of competent persons performing construction work from Project Initiation to Project Close – Out as well as a lack of competent persons performing health and safety in the construction industry.

“A competent person performing either construction work or performing health and safety in the construction industry is one who has knowledge, training, experience, qualifications, and is professionally registered," Maphaha said.

Maphaha said a client must appoint a Construction Health and Safety Agent at the commencement of Stage 1, which is Project Initiation and Briefing, and not at any other stage. According to him, this will allow the Construction Health and Safety Agent to monitor the integration of health and safety aspects for constructability, maintainability, and operability of the structure during the design process and finalise the construction project baseline risk assessment.

During the presentation by Thulani Sibeko, CEO: Rand Mutual Assurance, which deals with the Mining and Metals Sectors, it was revealed that in the Metals Class (Light &

Heavy Steel, Automotive, etc.), the top three injuries experienced during the 2025 Financial Year are foreign objects to the cornea (eye), open wound to fingers/thumb, and injury of the wrist and hand, whereas the top three diseases were noise effect on the inner ear, synovitis & tenosynovitis of joints and tendons, as well as occupational asthma.

He told the gathering that in the Metals Class, they take care of 28 232 employers with 768 776 employees (lives). For 2025, he said they received a total of 18 831 claims, of which 232 were disease claims, 18 599 Injury claims, and 41 fatalities. According to him, this translates to 24,2 Injuries /1000 lives.

The Compensation Fund reported receiving 928 occupational disease claims and 127 992 for occupational injuries on duty.

The conference concludes tomorrow, 19 March.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Teboho Thejane

Departmental Spokesperson

082 697 0694/ teboho.thejane@labour.gov.za

-ENDS-

Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour

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