Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996 (Act No. 29 of 1996)Chapter 8 : General Provisions102. Definitions |
In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates—
means a planned programme of periodic collection and analysis of body fluid, tissues, excreta or exhaled air in order to detect and quantify the exposure to or absorption of any substance or organism;
means the person who is responsible for the overall management and control of the business of an employer;
means the officer appointed in terms of section 48(1) and includes any officer acting in that capacity;
means the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration established in terms of section 112 of the Labour Relations Act;
means the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996;
[Definition inserted by section 30(a) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
means the Mine Health and Safety Council established by section 41(1);
means the Department of Minerals and Energy;
means any person who is employed or working at a mine;
means an owner;
means any appliance or combination of appliances by which power, other than human or animal power, can be applied to do mechanical work;
means a source of or exposure to danger;
refers to occupational health at mines;
means a health and safety committee established in terms of section 34;
means an article or part of an article that is manufactured, provided or installed in the interest of the health or safety of any person;
means an employee elected and appointed in terms of section 29;
means any standard, irrespective of whether or not it has the force of law, which, if applied for the purposes of this Act, will in the opinion of the Minister promote the attainment of an object of this Act;
means any physical, chemical or biological hazard to health, including anything declared to be a health hazard by the Minister;
means any occurrence that has or may have the potential to cause serious illness or damage to health;
means free from illness or injury attributable to occupational causes;
means an officer appointed in terms of section 49(1)(c), a Medical Inspector and any Principal Inspector of Mines;
means the Labour Court established by section 151 of the Labour Relations Act;
means the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Act No. 66 of 1995);
means any engine, boiler or appliance or any combination of them, which is situated at a mine and used or intended to be used—
| (a) | for generating, developing, receiving, storing, converting, transforming, transmitting or distributing any form of power or energy; or |
| (b) | for conveying persons, material or minerals; |
means any competent person appointed in terms of section 3(1)(a);
means a Medical Inspector appointed in terms of section 49(1)(b);
means a medical practitioner as defined in the Medical, Dental and Supplementary Health Service Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974);
means a planned programme of periodic examination, which may include clinical examinations, biological monitoring or medical tests, of employees by an occupational health practitioner or by an occupational medical practitioner contemplated in section 13;
means, when—
| (a) | used as a noun— |
| (i) | any borehole, or excavation, in any tailings or in the earth, including the portion of the earth that is under the sea or other water, made for the purpose of searching for or winning a mineral, whether it is being worked or not; or |
| (ii) | any other place where a mineral deposit is being exploited, including the mining area and all buildings, structures, machinery, mine dumps, access roads or objects situated on or in that area that are used or intended to be used in connection with searching, winning, exploiting or processing of a mineral, or for health and safety purposes.But, if two or more excavations, boreholes or places are being worked in conjunction with one another, they are deemed to comprise one mine, unless the Chief Inspector of Mines notifies their employer in writing that those excavations, boreholes or places comprise two or more mines; or |
| (iii) | a works; and |
| (b) | used as a verb, the making of any excavation or borehole referred to in paragraph (a)(i), or the exploitation of any mineral deposit in any other manner, for the purpose of winning a mineral, including prospecting in connection with the winning of a mineral; |
means any substance, excluding water, but including sand, stone, rock, gravel and clay, as well as soil, other than top soil—
| (a) | whether that substance is in solid, liquid or gaseous form; |
| (b) | that occurs naturally in or on the earth, in or under water or in tailings; and |
| (c) | that has been formed by or subjected to a geological process; |
means the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act No. 28 of 2002);
[Definition inserted by section 30(b) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
[Definition deleted by section 30(c) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
means the mining area as defined in section 1 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act;
means the Minister of Minerals and Energy;
means any health disorder including a compensatable disease as contemplated by the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act, 1973 (Act No. 78 of 1973), and an occupational disease contemplated by the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 1993 (Act No. 130 of 1993);
includes occupational hygiene and occupational medicine;
[Definition deleted by section 30(d) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
means the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of conditions at the mine, that may cause illness or adverse health effects to persons;
means the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness, injury and adverse health effects associated with a particular type of work;
means a medical practitioner who holds a qualification in occupational medicine, or an equivalent qualification, recognised by the Health Professions Council of South Africa or a medical practitioner engaged in accordance with section 13(4);
[Definition substituted by section 30(e) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
means a woman or man who has been appointed permanently despite the fact that such appointment may be on probation to a post contemplated in section 8(1)(a) of the Public Service Act, 1994 (Proclamation No. 103 of 1994), and includes a woman or man contemplated in section 8(1)(b) or 8(3)(c) of that Act;
means any biological entity which is capable of causing illness to persons;
| (a) | in relation to a mine, means— |
| (i) | the holder of a prospecting permit or mining authorisation issued under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act; |
[Paragraph (a)(i) substituted by section 30(f) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
| (ii) | if a prospecting permit or mining authorisation does not exist, the person for whom the activities contemplated in paragraph (b) of the definition of 'mine' are undertaken, but excluding an independent contractor; or |
| (iii) | if neither (i) or (ii) is applicable, the last person who worked the mine or that person's successor in title; and |
| (b) | in relation to a works, means the person who is undertaking the activities contemplated in the definition of 'works', but excluding an independent contractor; |
means prescribed by regulation;
means the officer appointed by the Chief Inspector of Mines to be in charge of health and safety in any region established in terms of section 47(2);
means the recovering, extracting, concentrating, refining, calcining, classifying, crushing, milling, screening, washing, reduction, smelting or gasification of any mineral, and "process" has a similar meaning;
means intentionally searching for any mineral by means that disturb any tailings or the surface of the earth, including the portion of the earth that is under the sea or under other water, by means of excavation or drilling, but does not include mine as a verb;
means the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No. 1 of 1999);
[Definition inserted by section 30(g) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
means practicable having regard to—
| (a) | the severity and scope of the hazard or risk concerned; |
| (b) | the state of knowledge reasonably available concerning that hazard or risk and of any means of removing or mitigating that hazard or risk; |
| (c) | the availability and suitability of means to remove or mitigate that hazard or risk; and |
| (d) | the costs and the benefits of removing or mitigating that hazard or risk; |
includes information contained in or on a computer printout, tape or disc or any other computer storage medium;
means a record kept in terms of section 13(3);
means a trade union registered in terms of the Labour Relations Act;
means a regulation made under section 98 or in force in terms of item 4 of Schedule 4;
means a registered trade union, or two or more registered trade unions acting jointly, that have as members the majority of employees at a mine;
means the likelihood that occupational injury or harm to persons will occur;
means safety at mines;
means any injury which is reportable under this Act;
means any illness resulting from occupational exposure that affects the health of a person to the extent that it incapacitates the affected person from resuming that person's normal or similar occupation for four days or more;
means any provision occurring—
| (a) | in a specification, compulsory specification, code of practice or standard method as defined in section 1 of the Standards Act, 1993 (Act No. 29 of 1993); or |
| (b) | in any specification, code or any other directive having standardisation as its aim and issued by an institution or organisation inside or outside the Republic which, whether generally or with respect to any particular article or matter and whether internationally or in any particular country or territory, seeks to Promote standardisation; |
includes any solid, liquid, vapour, gas or aerosol, alone or in any combination;
includes—
| (a) | the section numbers, but not the page headers, headings or sidenotes; |
| (b) | the Schedules; |
| (c) | the regulations; and |
| (d) | any condition, suspension, notice, order, instruction, prohibition, authorisation, permission, consent, exemption, certificate or document determined, given, issued, promulgated or granted by or under this Act by the Minister, Chief Inspector of Mines, an inspector, any person authorised under section 49(4) or any person to whom a power has been delegated or the performance of a duty has been assigned under section 96; |
means topsoil as defined in section 1 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act;
[Definition substituted by section 30(h) of Notice No. 428, GG 32140, dated 17 April 2009 (Mine Health and Safety Amendment Act No. 74 of 2008)]
means any place at a mine where employees travel or work;
means any place, excluding a mine, where any person carries out—
| a) | the transmitting and distributing to another consumer of any form of power from a mine, by the employer thereof, to the terminal point of bulk supply or where the supply is not in bulk, to the power supply meter on any such other consumer's premises; or |
| b) | training at any central rescue station; or |
| c) | the making, repairing, re-opening or closing of any subterranean tunnel; or |
| d) | any operations necessary or in connection with any of the operations listed in this paragraph. |