Online Reporter
Mkhululi Ncube, [email protected]
THE Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Edgar Moyo, has sounded alarm over occupational safety amid revelations that more than 4 000 workplace-related accidents and 78 deaths were recorded in the country last year.
Minister Moyo was speaking during the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) two-day Engineer’s Workshop on Occupational Safety and Health in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
The workshop was held under the theme: “Vision Zero: Safety, Health and Well-being”, and sought to tackle work-related accidents and deaths, among others.
“In 2022, a total of 4 912 disabling injuries were recorded, accompanied by 70 fatalities. In 2023, we observed some improvement with 4 334 injuries recorded and 60 fatalities reported to Nssa,” Moyo said.
“However, this progress was not sustained in 2024, where 4 242 occupational injuries were recorded but tragically 70 lives were lost. Most concerning in 2025, the number of reported injuries rose again to 4 414 with 78 fatalities recorded, the highest loss of life for a yearly period.”
Minister Moyo said the high statistics should sober up safety and health practitioners within workplaces, who should ask themselves if they were delivering on their mandate.
He said there was a serious need to bring the numbers down as loss of life was not acceptable.
“My question will be, as safety and health practitioners responsible for ensuring safe engineering designs and safe operations in our industries, have we been effective in our various roles? What is the state of our equipment? Is accident prevention part of production and business?” said Minister Moyo.
“Are our engineers discharging their professional duties within the confines of the law and ethics to avoid accidents to themselves and others? If we value occupational safety and health of our employees, we should indeed expect our occupational injury indicators to go down. This will, in turn, register a positive growth in the economy,” he said.
Minister Moyo said OSH is a fundamental principle and a right to work, adding that loss of life is a major concern to the Government due to the trauma in brings to families.
“Government will do everything possible to push for a new OSH law that should help us all as a nation to arrest this needless loss of life at work and stop these horrendous experiences suffered by injured workers and their families,” he said.
The minister emphasised the need to also address industry emissions, which affect the health of communities.
He said there is need to address challenges like communication barriers, unreported injury of employees and bribery to inspectors during regular inspections.
Moyo condemned both employers and employees who conspired to disregard measures meant to prevent accidents.
“The greatest asset to any company is the employee, hence employers should make sure that employees are well catered for with regards to ensuring that all hazards exposing the workforce to various ailments and injuries are effectively dealt with,” he said.
Minister Moyo said it rests upon the OSH officers to make sure that “Vision Zero” is attained, where work-related injuries and deaths are eliminated. – @themkhust.
