NSSA to invest in accident prevention programmes

THE National Social Security Authority (NSSA) plans to inject more funding to support the accident prevention and workers’ compensation scheme amid worrisome accidents and injuries statistics at the workplace countrywide.

NSSA is a statutory corporate body mandated to establish and administer social security schemes on behalf of the Government.

At the end of last year, it was reported that the Government had started crafting a Harmonised Safety and Health Bill aimed at updating legal frameworks to improve Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) standards in the country.

In an interview with Business Weekly, NSSA acting general manager, Dr Charles Shava, said despite the industrial inactivity that existed in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, occupational deaths and injuries were also high during that period because of limited enforcement by the authority.

“We actually intend to do more under this scheme, because this scheme has got funds allocated to make sure that we prevent accidents and we want to make sure that we channel funds to the division of OSH for the scheme to do what it was established for, which is to prevent accidents and diseases in work places.

“In 2020, we had about 42 deaths and over 5 200 injuries, that was at the peak of Covid-19 although there wasn’t much industrial activities.

“We expected that deaths and injuries will fall but actually they went up for some reason and we think it is because there was little enforcement from us (NSSA) as a regulatory authority. So, people were free to do whatever they wanted,” he said.

Last year, Shava said 48 deaths were recorded due to accidents at the workplaces while 4 257 injuries were recorded.

“Again those statistics are very high figures when you consider that we are only talking of people who are in the formal sector.

“I think we have about 52 deaths up to end of August and the year is not even over while injuries are over 4 700 already, so our statistics are certainly not pleasing and we believe we should actually do more,” he said, adding that NSSA was dealing with a very low death, injury and disease reporting rate.

In the past, the high number of occupational accidents were attributed to negligence by employers who were paying lip service to conditions of service for workers.

“A lot of people just get these diseases and go away. For example, if somebody has a backache and has been sitting in the wrong chair for the past two or three years, they just go away. So, a lot of the diseases and injuries don’t get reported.

“What we have is just a symptom of a bigger problem and so far this year has been quite uncomfortable for us,” he said.

Shava attributed the low reporting rate predominantly to “unfounded fear” that they will be prosecuted.

“A lot of people don’t report because they have this unfounded fear that we will be prosecuted and we want to assure our clients that we are there to support them; to make sure that they comply with the law.

“As an enforcement authority, some employers believe that if they report to us, then they have put themselves in trouble.

“But that is not the case, when you report an accident, you are not admitting any culpability. You are simply informing the authority that something has happened here, and when we come there.

“We don’t come as police to arrest, we come there to investigate and our investigations are always focused on making sure that we help to make sure that such a similar accident doesn’t occur in future.”

Secondly, he said the other reason for the low reporting rate was some employers were ignorant of the fact that they have to report the accidents at the workplace to Nssa.

“And this is where we are trying to make sure that we do as many promotions and inspections as possible, and we provide as much training as we can to all industries to make sure they understand that it is good business to report these injuries and accidents.

“Once you report and it is investigated and a solution is found, that accident is likely not to occur in future because you already know how to deal with this,” said Shava.

Between 2009 and 2018, Zimbabwe lost about US$439 million due to occupational injuries translating to US$44 million per year.ebsusinessweek