Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, [email protected]
TWELVE people have reportedly succumbed to the deadly silicosis disease in Kwekwe District, with several others admitted to Kwekwe General Hospital.
The disease, caused by inhaling silica dust, primarily affects workers in industries such as mining and construction.
Silicosis is a serious lung disease that develops after prolonged exposure to silica dust, often resulting in severe respiratory issues and increased vulnerability to other diseases like tuberculosis. The recent surge in cases in Kwekwe has raised concern among health officials and the local community about the working conditions in high-risk industries.
Kwekwe, a mining community, has been hard hit by the disease, recording more than 25 deaths last year alone.
Acting Kwekwe General Hospital medical superintendent, Dr Bruce Mhondiwa said since January this year, the health institution has already lost 12 lives.
“Since January we have had 12 patients who were admitted and all of them have since passed on. As we speak, we have about three who are admitted at our institution,” he said.
Dr Mhondiwa said some cases were going unreported since most of the cases are being diagnosed as tuberculosis.
“Silicosis is closely linked to tuberculosis. That is the major worry we have because most people are failing to diagnose the disease and confusing it with tuberculosis which is curable,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we end up having people being diagnosed late and some even dying from the disease because they are not aware of the symptoms.”
Dr Mhondiwa said they have embarked on awareness campaigns and engaging mine owners over the disease.
“We are offering mobile clinic services to mining hotspots in Kwekwe and it’s quite a good move because we are making significant strides to try and defeat the disease at an early stage. We are also encouraging mining companies to conduct regular medical check-ups so that the disease is detected early,” he said.
“We have been getting oxygen free of charge from a certain company and we are grateful for that. As an institution, we have since upped our game in terms of preparation for the disease in Kwekwe, which is largely a mining community.”
The development brings to the fore the need to tighten the health policies within companies to minimise occupational deaths.
During a National Social Security Authority (Nssa) Engineers Workshop, which was focused on addressing occupational hazards and ensuring safety in the workplace, it emerged that an estimated 4 000 workers sustain injuries or fall sick at the workplace in Zimbabwe annually due to occupational hazards and other work-related incidents.
During the meeting, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister July Moyo said the country is moving towards standardising occupational safety and health (OSH) issues in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards.
He reiterated that the informal sector is a major component of the economy and as such should be incorporated by the OSH.
“There is a lot of production, which takes place in private entities like furniture manufacturing. They should benefit from your professionalism as engineers and also in line with living no one and no place behind, all sectors should benefit from the OSH division of Nssa,” said Minister Moyo.
Nssa acting chief executive officer, Dr Charles Shava, said while the number of injuries had increased in the last three to four years to about 500 per year, enhanced interventions by their Department of Occupational Safety and Health, (OSH) have resulted in a significant drop.
“We are glad that our lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR), which is the number of lost time injuries occurring in a workplace per a certain period, has dropped from about six people to about 1,5,” he said.
“Our ultimate target is less than one, which means that we don’t want any injuries at all. We are going to try to improve those numbers because ultimately, the worker is the most important component at any workplace.”
Concern was also raised over some companies in Zimbabwe, which are resisting implementing safety measures that keep the work environment safe and locking out Nssa inspectors.
Nssa principal inspector of factories, Engineer Absalom Zengeya said they have since ordered some companies to change the operations applied in some furnaces deemed dangerous to employees.
He said some companies are not adhering to the country’s legal OSH frameworks.
“There are many instances where we had to forcibly enter company premises accompanied by armed police. Every company must be visited by
Nssa inspectors and it is our mandate to inspect every company,” he said.
Eng Zengeya said most companies in Zimbabwe are not conforming to the country’s OSH legislative provisions hence the disasters being encountered within the companies.
“Most of the cases in industries deal with negligence. When a person fails to exercise the care required in the circumstances, or where he should foresee a prohibited result or circumstance and guard against it, but fails to do so, it is failure to exercise due care and usually results in accidents,” he said.
Young Miners Foundation founder and chief executive officer Mr Payne Kupfuwa expressed concern over the increase in deaths.
“As Young Miners Foundation (YMF) we are greatly concerned by the surge of silicosis and other associated diseases fatalities as most of these victims are young people who are the target group of programming. In response to such unfortunate incidents, our YMF Safety health and environmental affairs unit has partnered with the International Health and Nursing Academy (IHNA) and Lenrage OSHE Consultancy to do free OHS training courses starting on the 5th-7th of August in Bulawayo,” he said.
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